WHY THEY GROW SO VIGOROUSLY IN SPRING. 
33 
long preceding labor. Not only was the tender verdure which, after a few spring 
showers and sunny days, is so suddenly spread out over field and forest, all pre¬ 
pared beforehand, — most of the leaves, even, made the summer before, and snugly 
packed away in winter-buds, — but the nourishment which enables them to un¬ 
fold and grow so fast was also prepared for this purpose by the foliage of the year 
before, and laid up until it was wanted. The grain grows with vigor, because fed 
with the richest products of the mother plant, the results of a former year’s vegeta¬ 
tion. The Lily-blossom develops in all its glory without toil of its own, because all 
its materials were gathered from the earth and the air long before, by the roots 
and the leaves, manufactured by the latter into vegetable matter, and this stored 
up for a year or two under ground in the bottoms of the leaves (as starch, jelly, 
sugar, &c.), and in many cases actually made into blossoms in the dark earth, where 
the flower-buds lie slumbering in the protecting bulb through the cold winter, and in 
summer promptly unfold in beauty for our delight. 
Analysis of the Section. 
51. The seedling is a complete plant on the simplest scale ; in growth it merely increases its parts, 
and multiplies them in number, as fast as it makes materials for growth. 52. Simple stems, how 
formed and carried up, piece by piece. 53. Branches : 54. of Roots, how they differ from those, 
55. of Stems. Where these arise from ; in what form they appear. 56. Buds, what they are. 
57. Terminal Bud, what it makes. 58. Axillary Buds ; why so named ; what they make. 59. How 
branches are arranged, and what their arrangement depends upon: alternate; opposite. 60. The spray 
and buds of shrubs and trees in winter; Leaf-scars. 61. Why branches are not as regular and as many 
as the buds or leaves. 
62,63. The Duration and Character of Plants as affecting the way they grow. 64. Herbs. 65. Shrubs. 
66. Trees. 67. Herbs are annuals, biennials, or perennials. 
68. Annuals ; their mode of life ; character of their roots, intended only for absorbing; duration, &c. 
69. Biennials ; how defined ; examples. 70. Character of their roots, and illustrations of their 
mode of life ; the first year, food made and stored up ; the second year, food expended, for what pur¬ 
pose. 71. How biennials may sometimes be made perennial, and annuals biennial. 72. The store of 
food may be kept in the leaves, or in the stems above ground ; Cabbage, &c. 
73. Perennials ; what they are ; mode of life of perennial herbs from year to year ; accumulation of 
food in roots. 74. Accumulation of food in under-ground branches ; Tubers, as of Ground Artichoke. 
75. Potato illustrated. 76. Accumulation in whole stems or branches under ground ; Rootstocks. 
77. Accumulation of food in leaves, above ground, as in Houseleek ; or in the bottoms of leaves, usu¬ 
ally under ground ; Bulbs ; as of Lily, and, 78. of Onion. 
79. Food, how stored up in shrubs and trees, and for what purpose ; used in leafing and blossoming 
in spring. 80. A lesson taught by vegetation. 
