58 
GARDENING AS A SCIENCE. 
or below the collar, those dots or masses figured in the referential wood-cut of the 
Cyclopaedia, will be more or less discernible. 
The radicle being sufficiently advanced, the first solitary leaf — which we will 
consider the single plumule , (the lobe remaining under the surface) — advances, 
lengthens, and becomes a rigid, plaited, long leaf, not in figure unlike the leaf of 
Tigridia f err aria. 
As the plant proceeds, another leaf is produced, interior of the former, not 
opposite to it, but so situated, as to be about one-third part of a small circle from 
it. When a third leaf — still within the second — appears, the circle at the base is 
completed. By the time that another series of three leaves is formed it will be 
seen that the first three have long footstalks, the broad base of each being within 
that of the one last produced ; that of the first leaf embracing the second, and 
advancing far round the whole. 
Within the leaf a considerable number of cords pass downwards, “ and its 
base passes all round the plumule, and encloses it, while with every successional 
leaf the cellular tissue increases in diameter to make room for the descending 
ligneous cords ; but these cords, however, soon cease to maintain anything like a 
parallel direction, but curve outwards as they pass downward.” They either 
terminate about the collar, or above it, in the hardened tissue which forms the 
outer integument. Thus in the date-palm, the base of each leaf pressing outwards 
from the centre, forms, as it were, a sort of bulb just above the soil. This rounded 
protuberance is, in fact, the rudiment of the stem ; for nothing like a stem as yet 
rises or advances from the centre : but as every leaf is pressed outward and at its 
base, by very slow degrees the consolidated bases of the whole produce a pseudo- 
stem. This gradual process is nicely described in the following extract := — 
u In this manner leaf after leaf is developed, the horizontal cellular system 
enlarging all the time, and every successive leaf as it forms at the growing point, 
emitting more woody bundles curving downwards and outwards, and consequently 
intersecting the old arcs at some place or other ; the result of this is, that the first 
formed leaf will have the upper end of the arcs which belong to it longest, and 
much stretched outwardly, while the youngest will have the arc the straightest ; 
and the appearance produced in the stem will be that of a confused entanglement 
of woody bundles in the midst of a quantity of cellular tissue.” 
If we seek for examples, one presents itself in the common cane of India, 
( Bambuca arundinacea ) : its external integument is glossy, and so hard as to turn 
the edge of the keenest knife ; yet this external covering possesses little in common 
with the bark of trees. Cut a slice transversely, and as thin as possible, and the 
microscope, by aid of a powerful reflected light, will exhibit the numerous masses 
of fibres, amidst the now arid remains of cellular tissue. Take a thin slice length- 
wise, and the fibrous system will be rendered more continuously visible. A reed 
from our own ditches will furnish additional evidence, though less perfect at some 
of its stages of growth. 
