WAYSIDE WEEDS. 137 



connect the rootj and treat of both togetlier. Were 

 we to ask our novitiate readers what parts they 

 would consider most necessary for the existence 

 and individuality of a plant, they would be much 

 inclined to name root and stem, and yet there are 

 plants apparently destitute of one or other of these 

 parts. Some of the orchis tribe have no roots at 

 all, except sach as are air planted, or aerial, and 

 the familiar primrose, the plantain (Fig, 52), the 

 stemless thistle, etc., etc., seem equally destitute 

 of stem : seem, be it remarked, for no plant which 

 bears a leaf can be said to want a stem of some 

 sort, be it ever so short, no more, perhaps, than, 

 what is called the root crown, but still it is stem^ 

 for though so intimately connected, the two parts 

 root and stem claim to be essentially distinct from 

 the first moment of their seedhng' birth, when the 

 root mil go down, and the stem will go up as by 

 most unerring instinct. If any reader could tell 

 us why all roots tend to strike downwards, away 

 from the Hght, and towards the centre of this 

 terrestrial ball of ours, they would answer a very 

 puzzHng question. Many experiments have been 

 tried, and germinating seeds have been placed in 

 all positions and circumstances, but yet down go 

 the roots, up go the little seedhng stem, and all 

 we can say is that so it has been ordered by God. 



Of stems we have many varieties; you have 

 only to use your eyes in the first walk you take in 



