THE STEM 53 



over by the new growths which are formed. Interesting 

 cases may often be seen in wayside trees. 



PRACTICAL WORK 



Obtain complete specimens (i.e. with roots, and if 

 possible flowers) of any ordinary non-woody plants e.g., 

 mangolds, grasses, balsams, primroses, house-leeks, dead- 

 nettle, etc. ; climbing plants, such as convolvulus, beans ; 

 creeping plants, such as creeping jenny, couch grass, 

 strawberry, etc. Notice how in spite of all their differ- 

 ences they all have an above-ground " shoot," made up of 

 a stem (sometimes very short) with leaves and flowers, 

 and a below-ground root, bearing no leaves or flowers. 

 Make sketches to illustrate diagrammatically the char- 

 acteristic points of at least one example of each group 

 e.g., a balsam, a primrose, a bean, and couch grass. 



Examine a leafy shoot of privet, elder, dead-nettle, 

 or of almost any other plant available, and notice that it 

 is made up of a stem, bearing leaves. Distinguish the 

 nodes and internodes, and observe that the internodes 

 get shorter as you approach the top of the stem, the 

 leaves accordingly becoming more crowded. At the 

 very summit the internodes are extremely short, and 

 the young leaves are packed together to form the 

 terminal leaf-bud. Observe the smaller leaf-buds which 

 occur just above the place where a leaf joins the stem. 



Examine a privet bush, and notice that whilst some 

 shoots grow upright, others lie almost horizontally, and 

 that whilst in the upright shoots the leaves are arranged 

 equally on all sides of the stem, they are on the hori- 

 zontal shoots twisted to one side. Examine closely the 



