STEMS. 65 



of it in the seed of the common broad bean 

 (Fig. 48A). You are looking at the inside of one 

 of the halves of it. Notice particularly the little 

 thing like a bud at the point marked kn. It is 

 called the "plumule" * and is a kind of stem bud 

 or beginning, from which the stem in the plant you 

 are looking at has grown up (Fig. 43 /). So it 

 does also in all other flowering plants which are 

 grown from seed. 



If when you read this it is too early in the season 

 to find a growing pea or bean in field or garden, 

 perhaps you have some little mustard or radish 

 plants just coming into sight try one of those. Or 

 if not, you will have a cornfield in your neighbour- 

 hood, with its beautiful green rows of corn just 

 appearing above the ground. It is worth a walk to 

 look at them. But when you get there you can easily 

 dig up a plant, with the seed still there ; and you can 

 notice how the stem has grown out from one part of 

 the seed where the plumule was. But now you know 

 about the beginning of the growth of the stem or 

 ascending axis, t 



Now you should work through the following 

 different kinds of stems. 



Some are scandent.\ These are climbing stems. 



* From the Latin "plumufa" a little feather. 



j* "Axis " is the straight line on which anything revolves, or may be 

 supposed to revolve, from the Greek " axon," an axle. 



+ From the Latin ** scando" I climb ; cf. stems of Vine, Hop, Virginia 

 Creeper, Honeysuckle, Bryony, Convolvulus. 



6 



