GROWTH OF MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



113 



represent the fibers) ; each of these fibers seems to vegetate 

 separately, they are ranged around a central support and are 

 so disposed that the oldest are crowded outwardly, by the de- 

 velopment of new fibers in the center of the stem ; this pres- 

 sure causes the external layers to be very close and compact. 

 This mode of increase, little favorable to growth in diameter, 

 produces long and straight stems, nearly uniform in size 

 throughout their whole extent ; as the palms and sugar-canes 

 of the tropics, and the Indian corn of our climate. 



Fig. 127, at A, represents a section of the stipe or stem of a palm-tree ; at B, ia 

 the same magnitied ; a b shows a part of the stipe in which the woody fibers are 

 most dense and hard ; b c shows the fibers less numerous, less compact, and less 

 hard ; c d includes the woody fibers, tender and scattered ; the orifices of tubes 



/ S 



J^-r:i^:-v^*A Fig. 127. /,i /\ 



^-^..^..-..m&mmism}^ 







which have disappeared are seen at c a. In the part c d the cellular tissue occu- 

 pies a greater space than at c b, and much more than at b a, where the woody 

 liber, or vascular texture, predominates. The fibers at e are of new formation ; at/ 

 they are older ; and at g still more ancient ; thus the development of the wood in 

 this plant proceeds inversely to that of dicotyledonous plants. 



136. Endogenous plants continue to increase in hight long 

 after they cease to grow in diameter ; the stem is gradually 

 extended upward by new terminal shoots, which are formed 

 annually. The epidermis is formed of the foot-stalks of leaves, 

 which annually sprout from the rim of a new layer of wood ; 

 the leaves falling in autumn, their foot-stalks become indurated, 

 and remain upon the outer surface of the plant. 



137. By attention to the vegetable sv'ructare the young may be induced t(» 

 think more upon the wonderful mechanism of their own material frames, upon the 

 analogv and yet infinite difference between themselves and the hlies of the field. 

 In considering these things we are led to exclaim, in the language of the Psalmist, 

 " Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them &11 1" 

 Tlie human body is nourished by the same elements as the grass which perish- 

 eth ; the flowers have a much more refined corporeal substance, but how much 

 more precious are we in the sight of the Almighty ! Do we ask why we are of 



What is Fig. 127 designed to illu.<!trate ?— 136. Endogenous stem i-ici ^.ng mi ti^lu -How is the 

 epidermis formed 7—137. Reflections on tlie analogies between tke v.'gcuibw a. \ k.iin}».' substances. 



