THE STEM AND BKANCHES. 197 



which are the central and most truly plant-like 

 type ; but I ought to tell you now that a great 

 many plants, especially among the lower kinds, 

 behave in this respect much more like animals : 

 instead of manufacturing fresh starches and 

 protoplasms for themselves from carbonic acid, 

 under the influence of sunlight, they eat up 

 what has already been made by other and more 

 industrious species. Such plants are retrograde. 

 They are products of degeneracy. Amoiign&hem 

 I may specially mention all the fungi, like mush- 

 rooms, toadstools, mould, and mildew, as well as 

 the bacilli and bacteria, microscopic and de- 

 generate plants which cause decomposition. 

 Their life is more like that of animals than of 

 true vegetables. 



In tropical forests, where the soil is almost 

 monopolised by huge spreading trees, the smaller 

 plants have been forced to secure their fair share 

 of light and air by somewhat different means 

 from those which are common in cooler climates. 

 Many of them, without being parasitic, have 

 learnt to attach themselves by their roots to the 

 outer bark of the trees, and so to get at the 

 light, no ray of which ever struggles through the 

 living canopy of green in the dense jungle. 

 These plants have green leaves, and eat for 

 themselves ; but they use the boughs of their 

 host instead of soil to root themselves in. Such 

 plants are technically known as epiphytes. This 

 is the mode of life of most of the handsome 

 orchids cultivated in our conservatories. 



Now let us recapitulate. The stem unites the 



