has wrapped up in it a minute plumule, or bud, that 

 shows itself when the seeds sprout in germination. 

 The first leaf which appears above ground in all 

 these cases is not the cotyledon. In all 

 seeds with one cotyledon to the embryo, this remains 

 in the seed, or at least its upper part, while its 

 lengthening base comes out, so as to extricate the 

 plumule, which shoots upward, and develops the 

 first leaves of the plantlet. These appear one above 

 or within the other in succession, the first commonly 

 in the form of a little scale or imperfect leaf, the 

 second or third and the following ones as the real, 

 ordinary leaves of the plant. Meanwhile, from the 

 root end of the embryo, a root, or soon a whole 

 cluster of roots, make its appearance. 



The Growth of Plants from Buds and 

 Branches. 



We have now seen how the plant grows so as to 

 produce a root, and a simple stem with its foliage. 

 Both the root and stem, however, generally branch. 



The branches of the roots arise without any par- 

 ticular order. There is no telling beforehand from 

 what part of a main root they will spring. But the 

 branches of the stem, except in some extraordinary 

 cases, regularly arise from a particular place. 

 Branches or shoots in their undeveloped state are 

 buds. These regularly appear in the axils of the 

 leaves that is, in the angle formed by the leaf 

 with the stem on the upper side; and as leaves are 

 symmetrically arranged on the stem, the buds, and 

 the branches into which the buds grow, necessarily 

 partake of this symmetry. In growing, buds lengthen 

 into branches, just as the original stem did from the 

 plumule of the embryo. 



135 



