490 Wood If Fibre of the Palm. 



should the observer, in seeking to find out the connexions of the 

 different members of a stem, begin his tracing at the wrong end? 

 Surely, the base of a stem had existence before the leaves, or 

 fronds, on the top. The tracing should be according to the 

 natural growth. See, first, where any member had or has its 

 origin, and trace it upward as far as it extends ; but do not pro- 

 ceed the contrary way, merely because it is stated in books that 

 the accretion of a monocotyledonous stem is internal; which, by 

 the by, only means that all new growth proceeds from the 

 centre of the system. Observe the annual stem of asparagus : 

 on its first appearance it is as large in diameter as it is when 

 the seeds are ripe. Its growth is nothing but simple elongation : 

 each of its attenuated leaves, and each of its capsules, is attached 

 to the fibrous tissue ; but who can assert, with reason, that each 

 of these members sends dowji special fibres to compose the bulk 

 of the stem ? It is the same with the perennial trunks of palms : 

 they are as large when only one foot high as when they are 

 fifty. The fronds are, no doubt, all attached to, and proceed 

 consecutively from, the base; each new, or youngest, one having 

 a longei* petiole than the preceding, and each oldest one, in its 

 tufn, dying off, but leaving a part of its base to form, collectively, 

 the fibrous stem. 



That fibrous tissues of the fronds curve inwards towards the 

 centre, is perfectly true. It cannot be otherwise ; because these, 

 rising erectly in the middle, fall subsequently sidewise. A knee 

 is formed on the footstalk at the point of flexure ; but, though 

 this curvature remains in the grain of the wood, it is every day 

 becoming more straight by the lateral pressure of the central 

 growth. 



It is very evident that, if Mr. Gardner had never heard that 

 there were such circumstances as sap and fibres running down 

 the stems of palms, and if he had not been afraid of differing from 

 authorities at home, he would have given a far more rational ac- 

 count of the ligneous structure of the stems of those majestic trees. 

 Thus, however, it is with every hypothesis relating to natural 

 phenomena, which is adopted without due reflection and careful 

 examination. Every appearance of the object to be considered 

 is bent and twisted, in order that it may dovetail with the 

 reveries of our learned leaders. Hence, we see Mr. Gardner 

 drifting with the current, and fixing the capital high in air, 

 before one stone of the pedestal or column is laid I 



That the living embryo exists in a seed before its roots are 

 protruded, is a fact; and that a living cutting is destitute of roots 

 until it is placed in a medium favourable to their developement, 

 is no less evident ; but both these are very different from the 

 connexion between the leaves of dicotyledons, which are arti- 

 culate with the fibrous membranes, and those of monocotyledons 



