$74 ANOMALIES OF DEVELOPEMENT. CHAP. V. 



being inverted, because the plumelet contains as 

 yet no vegetative principle whose developement 

 could be effected by being placed in the earth. But 

 this is not the case with the inverted plant ; because 

 its leaves or branches contain buds or germes that 

 have been acquired in the process of vegetation. But 

 these germes are plants in miniature, containing 

 the rudiments of every thing necessary to the per- 

 fection of the species. Consequently they contain 

 a part equivalent to the radicle of the embryo, and 

 capable of being converted into a root when placed 

 in a proper situation. Now the earth affords them 

 that situation, and the inverted plant grows. 



SECTION II. 

 The Stem. 



The radi- IF the stem of a tree planted by a pond or river 

 is so bent in its growth as to come near to the sur- 

 face of the water and to be occasionally immersed 

 in it, it will sometimes send out from the under 

 surface a multitude of shoots that will descend into 

 the water and develope themselves in the manner 

 of the Fox-tail-root. They are often rendered con- 

 spicuous in the summer by means of the subsiding 

 of the water from the under surface of a stem that 

 may have been partially immersed in the winter, 

 such as that of Willows overhanging ponds or 



eating 

 stem. 



