PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 11 



been produced at the rate of one thousand feet , or more ^ 

 per day. 



</i^ 1 ^ 



Now, it has been said, that corn may be heard^ta grow-4n r> 

 a still, warm night, and it has been proved that a rc\ot of corn 

 will elongate one inch in fifteen minutes. But here aise twelve 

 thousand inches of increase in twenty-four hours. What 

 lively times in the soil, where such vital force is at work! 

 The wonder is, we do not hear the building of these roots as 

 it goes on. 



But in addition to the movements caused by the increase of 

 the roots among the particles of the soil, we should remember 

 that solution, chemical affinity, diffusion and capillarity, as 

 well as the absorption of the feeding rootlets, are incessantly 

 at work beneath the surface of the silent earth. With what 

 amazement should we behold the development of a crop upon 

 a fertile field, if we could but see with our eyes the things 

 which are known to transpire ! 



Let us next consider some peculiarities of plant-growth 

 which were exhibited in the development of the squash-vine, 

 with its appendicular organs the leaves and the tendrils, 

 and its reproductive organs the flowers and the fruit. 



The peculiar feature of the vegetable stem is the bud, by 

 which it is -always terminated, even in the seed. A bud is 

 an aggregation of delicate cells, filled with protoplasm, and 

 endowed with special vitality. Sometimes it is very minute 

 and simple in structure, and sometimes large and complicated. 

 As the stem elongates, it usually produces, at regular inter- 

 vals, leaves, in the axils of which are formed buds, which, in 

 growing, become the terminal buds of branches. The places 

 where leaves are borne are called nodes, and the spaces on the 

 stem between these are styled internodes. Every species of 

 plant has a definite law for the arrangement of its leaves. 

 Our squash produced one leaf at each node, and all the leaves 

 were arranged in two rows on opposite sides of the stem. 

 The vital force in the tip of the vine was very active and 

 vigorous, and displayed its power in the constant organization 

 of new nodes. Thus, when we examined the terminal inch 

 of the vine, we found no less than twenty-five young leaves, 

 and in the axils of these twenty-five flowers, including five 

 young squashes, twenty-five branching tendrils, and twenty- 



