I.] A BUTTERCUP. 3 



made out excepting in very thin slices dipped in caustic 

 potash, or some other reagent, to render them sufficiently 

 transparent. No single cell of the group monopolises 

 the originating of new tissue. 



You find, then, that the root avoids the light ; that it is 

 pale or nearly white : that its fibres give off, irregularly, 

 numerous delicate thread-like branches (fibrils) ; that it 

 is destitute of buds and leaves, and that the tips of the 

 root are protected by cellular sheaths. 



2. Now examine the STEM. 



You observe, at once, that the stem rises directly from 

 the ground, seeking, rather than avoiding, the light. In 

 one kind of buttercup, growing in moist soils, there are 

 two sorts of stem on the same plant ; one a creeping 

 stem, which has the power of giving off roots freely at 

 its joints, and which, spreading along the ground, multi- 

 plies the plant by forming offsets, and the other an erect 

 stem bearing flowers. It is the flower-bearing stem we 

 are speaking of just now. 



Excepting the lowest thickened portion, more or less 

 buried in the soil, the stem is coloured green, and not 

 being woody we may speak of it as herbaceous. It bears 

 several foliage-leaves arranged on different sides of the 

 stem. The lower ones spring in a tuft from its base, and 

 have long stalks. The upper foliage-leaves are without 

 stalks, and arranged singly on the stem, although some- 

 times they are so deeply divided as to look as though 

 they were in threes. 



If we examine the growing-point of a young stem 

 under a magnifying glass, carefully dissecting away the 

 leaves which surround it, we shall find that to the very 

 apex it continues to give off, successively, minute lateral 

 prominences, which are the rudiments of leaves. Both 

 foliage and flower-leaves originate upon the stem in the 

 same way, but they soon become different, both in their 

 arrangement, form, texture, and colour. The stem never 

 terminates in a cellular sheath like that which protects 

 the tips of the root. 



The branches spring from points where foliage-leaves 

 are given off from the stem ; each branch occupying the 

 angle (called the axil of the leaf) which the leaf makes 

 with the stem. 



B 2 



