VIII. THE STEM. I 57 



human habitation. For this central mass of the 

 vegetable organism, then, the English word ' trunk ' 

 and French ' tronc ' are always in accurate scholarship 

 to be retained — meaning the part of a tree which 

 remains when its branches are lopped away. 



17. We have now got distinct ideas of four 

 different kinds of stem, and simple names for them 

 in Latin and English, — Petiolus, Cymba, Stemma, 

 and Truncus ; Stalk, Leaf-stalk, Stem, and Trunk ; 

 and these are all that we shall commonly need. 

 There is, however, one more that will be sometimes 

 necessary, though it is ugly and difficult to pro- 

 nounce, and must be as little used as we can. 



And here I must ask you to learn with me 

 a little piece of Roman history. I say, to learn 

 with me, because I don't know any Roman history 

 except the two first books of Livy, and little 

 bits here and there of the following six or seven. 

 I only just know enough about it to be able to 

 make out the bearings and meaning of any fact 

 that I now learn. The greater number of modern 

 historians know, (if honest enough even for that,) 

 the facts, or something that may possibly be like 

 the facts, but haven't the least notion of the mean- 

 ing of them. So that, though I have to find out 

 everything that I want in Smith's Dictionary, like 

 any schoolboy, I can usually tell you the significance 



