2 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
by this admirable arrangement of nature permitting us to contem- 
plate the wonderful results, but without as yet enabling us to 
comprehend the strange mystery. 
A vegetable in miniature, the coun- 
terpart of the first, will, after a 
time, slowly reveal itself to the ob- 
server; in the mean time two parts, 
Fig. 2.—Haricot bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris). very distinct, make their appear- 
ance: one, yellowish in colour, already throwing out slender 
fibrous shoots, sinks farther into the soil—this is the racine 
radicle or root; the other, of a pale greenish colour, takes the 
opposite direction, ascends to the surface, and rises above the 
ground—this is the stem. 
Let us consider at first, in a general manner, this root and stem, 
with their functions. They are the essential organs of vegetation, 
without which, when we have excepted certain vegetables of an 
inferior order, plants, decorated with leaves and flowers, cannot 
exist. a 
1. Tue Root. 
The design of the Creator of the world seems to have been to 
embellish and make beautiful all which was to be exposed to our 
eyes, while that which was to be 
hidden was left destitute of grace 
or beauty. Leaves suspended from 
their branches balance themselves 
gracefully in the breathing air; 
the stems, branches, and flowers 
are the ornament’of the landscape, 
and satisfy the eye with their 
beauty ; but the root is without colours or brilliancy, and is usually 
of a dull uniform brown, and performs in obscurity functions as 
important as those of stem, branches, leaves, or flowers. Yet how 
vast the difference between the verdant top of a tree, which rises 
graceful and elegant into middle air—not to speak of the flower 
it bears: and the coarse mass of its roots, divided into tortuous 
_ branches, without harmony, without symmetry, and forming a 
ctu 
Fig. 3.—Haricot bean germinating. 
