THE ACORN AND I/S GERMINATION. 23 



ward it is vertically above the first or oldest leaf from 

 which we started, and has passed twice round the stem. 



At the end of this first year, which we may term 

 the period of germination, the young oak-plant or seed- 

 ling has a primary root some twelve to eighteen inches 

 long, and with numerous shorter, spreading side root- 

 lets, and a shoot from six to eight inches high, bearing 

 five or six leaves as described, and terminating in a 

 small ovoid bud (Figs. 3 and 4). The whole shoot is 

 clothed with numerous very fine soft hairs, and there 

 are also numerous fine root-hairs on the roots, and 

 clinging to the particles of soil. The tip of each root is 

 protected by a thin colorless cap the root-cap the de- 

 scription of which we defer for the present. 



About May, in the second year, each of the young 

 roots is elongating in the soil and putting forth new 

 root-hairs and rootlets, while the older roots are thicken- 

 ing and becoming harder and covered with cork ; and 

 each of the buds in the axils of the last year's leaves 

 begins to shoot out into a branch, bearing new leaves in 

 its turn, while the bud at the end of the shoot elongates 

 and lengthens the primary stem, the older parts of 

 which are also becoming thicker and clothed with cork. 

 And so the seedling develops into an oak-plant, each 

 year becoming larger and more complex, until it reaches 

 the stage of the sapling, and eventually becomes a 

 tree. 



