384 STEMS OF PALMS. PART n. 



be covered with a hard coat, as in the cocoa-nut, or 

 inclosed in a shell covered with a rich fruit, as in 

 the date. The infant plant, as it lies in its seed lobe, 

 has a stem with a leaf bud or plumule at one end, and 

 an embryo root at the other ; and, as soon as the seed 

 begins to germinate, it is nourished by the conversion 

 of the starch of the surrounding matter into sugar. At 

 first the whole young plant is of cellular tissue, but, as 

 soon as the seed leaf appears above the soil, it decom- 

 poses the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, absorbs the 

 oxygen, and consolidates the carbon. Then cords of 

 fibro- vascular tissue are formed within it, which converge 

 at its base, and unite with the radicle of the young 

 plant to form the solid centre of the underground 

 stem, from whence the real roots descend, like slender 

 white cords, which supply the plant with food. The 

 seed lobe having set the current of the cell sap in 

 motion disappears, and the aerial or above-ground stem, 

 which now consists of pith, sap, wood, and skin or bark, 

 grows rapidly in length to its first node, or thickened 

 part, where the first leaf or leaves appear, for the first 

 leaves generally appear at the top of the stem in this 

 class, and are annually succeeded by others rising above 

 them from the top of the elongated stem, as in the palms 

 and grasses. 



The stem or axis of a palm is a cylinder with a 

 graceful plume of leaves at its summit, and a cone of 

 white roots at its base. A section of the stem perpen- 

 dicular to its axis exhibits a mass of cellular tissue with 

 a number of dark-coloured spots irregularly scattered 

 throughout the whole with the exception of an enve- 

 lope of dense cellular tissue, which forms a kind of 

 bark. The dark spots are the sections of bundles 

 consisting of two or three very wide and large vas- 

 cular ducts enclosed in extremely fine woody fibre and 

 spiral vessels closely pressed together. These bundles 



