[329] SCIENTIFIC MANUAL. 43 



to produce fruit % or seed; hence the necessity, especially 

 in our climate, of disturbing the roots as little as possible 

 during the cultivation of the plant in summer. 



Our cotton and corn crops are often seriously injured by 

 deep plowing while the plants are in full process of develop- 

 ment, and especially during the fruiting season, when 

 every source of supply is needed to support them. Root 

 pruning may prove beneficial when the plant is young, in 

 causing additional ramification of fibrous branch roots, and 

 thus inducing a greater production of fruit, as the result 

 both of the pruning and of the loosening of the soil; but the 

 absorbing surface of the roots should not be curtailed while 

 the plant is producing fruit, nor for a reasonable length of 

 time before this process is commenced. 



Stems serve as a medium of communication between the 

 roots and leaves of the plant, and as a support for the 

 flowers, fruit, or seed, to which their functions are generally 

 subordinate since the natural end of all plants is the pro- 

 duction of seed. Many plants, however, are cultivated by 

 the agriculturist and horticulturist for the sake of the 

 enlarged fleshy root or tuber, the tender stem, the succu- 

 lent or fragrant leaves, the pulpy covering of the seed 

 (called fruit), the saccharine or gummy juice of the stem, the 

 hardened, timber-producing stem, the flower (prized either 

 for its beauty or fragrance), the fibre attached to the seed, 

 or forming the inner bark of the stem, for the medicinal 

 properties of root, stem, bark, leaves or buds, or as food for 

 insects useful to man. 



When seeds germinate, the roots first make their appear- 

 ance, and form what is termed the k ' descending axis/' soon 

 to be followed by the stem, or the ascending axis. 



<4 In the seed, the stem exists is a rudimentary state, 

 associated with undeveloped leaves, forming a bud. The 

 stem always proceeds, at first, from a bud, during all its 

 growth is terminated by a bud at every growing point, and 

 only ceases to be thus tipped when it fully accomplishes its. 



