52 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
which it is composed. The germ, for instance 
—the embryo of the future plant—enclosed in its 
small envelope is, we find, built up of a system 
of minute cells or cavities. There is, even in the 
minutest plant germ, a vast number of these 
cavities, and they are all constructed with mar- 
vellous and beautiful regularity. Nothing perhaps 
could better illustrate the beauty and symmetry 
of the form and arrangement of these cells than 
the familiar example of a honeycomb. But there 
is this difference. Instead of the aggregate of 
cells in the plant germ forming a rude and shape- 
less mass, they all contribute to the formation of 
objects of exquisite beauty, the variation of ex- 
ternal form in which is almost endless, being 
co-extensive with the varied and multitudinous 
forms of plants in the vegetable kingdom. The 
framework then—if we may so term it—of the 
plant germ consists of a series of walls investing 
an innumerable number of cells, or little chambers, 
packed closely together after the manner—though 
the shape of the cavities is different—of the cavities 
in the honey-comb, invested by their frame- 
work of wax. The cells in the plant germ are 
