24 
each tipon the model of the previous parts; various 
bodies being thus produced, possessing different cha¬ 
racteristics, but all reducible to the same general law. 
52. The root appears to be an exception to the ordi- 
nai'y rule ; but it seldom enters into the consideration 
of artists. Its incipient formation is not however at 
variance with the foregoing general statement. A. 
root is at first a cone, producing regularly from its 
sides certain arms or threads, spreading equally in all 
directions. But in consequence of the resisting me¬ 
dium in which a root grows, symmetrical develop¬ 
ment is soon interfered with. The soil is not like 
air ; and the parts produced in it are impeded by the 
obstacles they encounter, or injured by insects and 
accidents, and thus the regular arrangement which 
constitutes the beauty of vegetation does not appear 
to occur in subterranean organs. But if roots grew 
in fluid they would obey the general law, as a 
simple experiment will show. If an acorn is passed 
through a card fixed in the neck of a glass filled with 
water, the card being merely to keep the acorn 
steady, and if the point of the acorn touches the 
water, the root will be found as it grows downwards 
to arrange itself in quite as symmetrical a manner as 
the parts of a stem. 
53. The first circumstance to be noted in the stem 
of a plant is, that it always in the beginning, and 
usually at all times, is either a cone or a cylinder. In 
the majority of the cases with which artists have to 
deal, a stem is a cone, diminishing very gradually — 
almost insensibly — from its base upwards. In the 
oak, notwithstanding its huge bulk, this may be 
traced; the ramifications become gradually smaller, 
and almost end in vanishing points, so that however 
