VIE. SCIENCE IX IIEK CELLS. 125 



intervals with vital knots, (eyes,) from winch spring 

 kavrs ;md buds, disposed in a perfectly regular order. 

 The root presents nothing of the kind. This character 

 permits us always to distinguish, in the vegetable axis, 

 what belongs really to the stem, and what to the 

 root." 



4. Yes ; and that is partly a new idea to me, for in 

 this power of assigning their order for the leaves, the 

 stem seems to take a royal or commandant character, and 

 cannot be merely defined as the connexion of the leaf 

 with the roots. 



In it is put the spirit of determination. One cannot 

 fancy the little leaf, as it is born, determining the point 

 it will be born at : the governing stem must determine 

 that for it. Also the disorderliness of the root is to be 

 noted for a condition of its degradation, no less than its 

 love, and need, of Darkness. 



Xor was I quite right (above, 15, p. 139) in calling 

 the stem itself ' spiral ' : it is itself a straight-growing 

 rod, but one which, as it grows, lays the buds of future 

 leaves round it in a spiral order, like the bas-relief on 

 Trajan's column. 



I go on with Figuier: the next passage is very valua- 

 ble. 



5. "The tige is the part of plants which, directed 

 into the air, supports, and gives growing power to, the 

 branches, the twigs, the leaves, and the flowers. The 

 form, strength, and direction of the tige depend on the 



