80 FLOWER-LAND. 



find them along the hedgerows on certain elm and 

 poplar trees. If you can carefully dig up any of the 

 suckers of a plum tree in a garden, you will see how 

 they have sprung up from the roots. These stems 

 are called adventitious* because they grow out of 

 order, and appear where they might not have been 

 expected. 



There is a little more which I must tell you about 

 stems, before we pass on to leaves. For instance, 

 what is the difference between a " thorn " and a 

 " prickle " ? Well, let us see if we can find a haw- 

 thorn,! or a sloe bush ; and also a bramble, or a wild 

 rose (Fig. 5, p. 8). Probably we can easily find a 

 rose or bramble growing in a hedge of white thorn. 

 Now we will take a spray of white or black thorn, and 

 carefully take off the bark from one of its thorns, and 

 from the part of the stem from which the thorn grows. 

 Now try to break the thorn off from the stem. Now 

 cut it off. You see that the thorn is a part of the wood 

 of the stem. It is a kind of stunted sharpened 

 branch. But now come to a branch of rose or 

 bramble. You can break off the prickles easily. 

 They are not modified branches, that is, they 

 have not grown out from the wood of the stem like 

 the thorns. You will understand more about this here- 



* From the Latin " advenio, adventitius" that comes to, accidental, 

 additional. 



f From the Saxon " hag" hag, a hedge. Hawthorn, or hedge-thorn ; 

 it is also called May-bush, or White-thorn. The Sloe has a darker 

 coloured bark, and is therefore often called Black-thorn. 



