THE STAGES OF PLANT LIFE. 



17 



until the full-grown oak in all its beauty and majesty 

 stands before us (Fig. 0). 



The student is struck with wonder and admiration 

 as he watches these stages of growth ; how is it, he 

 asks, that the tiny plant which was nestling in the 

 acorn has been changed into this gigantic oak ? When 

 he comes to study the cells and tissues of which this 



4, A young oak at the end of the first season of growth, the markings on the stem, d, d, are the scars 

 ]eft by the fallen leaves ; at each scar there is an undeveloped bud ; some of these may grow during the 

 next season, and develop into branches. B, A young oak at the end of the first season, one of the lateral 

 buds having grown and produced a branch. 



great tree is made up, his amazement will increase as 

 he realizes the paucity of material and the magnitude 

 of the structure ; the insignificance of the beginning 

 and the grandeur of the end. "The economy of causes 

 and the prodigality of effects ; the simplicity of laws 

 and the complexity of results." 



36. The tree is now complete, possessing the organs 

 necessary to discharge the functions of plant growth. 

 It has root, rootlets, stem, branches, branchlets, and 



