38 PLANT LIFE ON THE FARM. 
may well be and often is the case that the injury to the 
plant is compensated for by other conditions, and that, 
in case of difficulties on both sides, it is wisest to choose 
the least of two. 
The Stem and its Work.—As the leaves, whatever 
their form, are nothing but outgrowths from the stem, 
and as no leaf exists except it be borne upon a stem, so 
it would have been more in the natural order of things if 
mention had been made of it before the leaves. As 
regards the nutrition of the plant, however, the stem 
plays but a secondary part, as compared either with the 
root or the leaves, and on this account it may not inap- 
propriately be considered after them. 
Botanically, any part of the plant that produces leaves, 
or the representatives of leaves, is considered to be stem. 
The root, inasmuch as it bears neither scales nor leaves, is 
not stem; the ‘‘root-stock,” inasmuch as it does bear 
scales and leaves, is truly a stem, even though it may be 
beneath ground. The long, creeping runners of ‘‘twitch” 
(Triticwm repens) are stems, so are the similar parts in 
thistles and bear-bind (Convolvulus arvensis). The 
bulbs of kohl rabi are clearly stems, for they bear leaves, 
or the scars where leaves have once been. Beet roots, . 
mangels, radishes, turnips, parsnips, partake of the 
nature of roots and of stems ; that is to say, their lower, 
tapering extremities are unquestionably roots; their 
thick upper end, surmounted by a crown of leaves, is as 
unquestionably stem. ‘There are anatomical differences 
—such as the presence of a root-cap, the absence of sto- 
mata in a root, and differences in the mode of growth— 
between roots and stems, but they are not material to our 
present purpose. It will be seen, from what has been 
above said, that the definition of a stem (or of a branch, 
which is only a subdivision of a stem), as that part of 
the plant told off to bear loaves, admits of very wide dif- 
