. How plants grow [microform] : a simple introduction to structural botany : with a popular flora, or an arrangement and description of common plants, both wild and cultivated : illustrated by 500 wood engravings. Botany; Botanique. 28 HOW PLANTS GROW YEAR AFTER YEAR. they must have, in order to bear leaves; for leaves do not grow on roots. But what stem they make is so very snort-jointed that it rises hardly any; so that the leaves seem to spring from the top of the root, and all spread out in a cluster close to the ground. As the plant grows, it merely sends out more and more branches of the
. How plants grow [microform] : a simple introduction to structural botany : with a popular flora, or an arrangement and description of common plants, both wild and cultivated : illustrated by 500 wood engravings. Botany; Botanique. 28 HOW PLANTS GROW YEAR AFTER YEAR. they must have, in order to bear leaves; for leaves do not grow on roots. But what stem they make is so very snort-jointed that it rises hardly any; so that the leaves seem to spring from the top of the root, and all spread out in a cluster close to the ground. As the plant grows, it merely sends out more and more branches of the root into the soil beneath, and adds more leaves to the cluster just above, close to the surface of the warm ground, and well exposed to the light and heat of the sun. Thus consisting of its two working organs only, — root and leaves, — the young biennial sets vigorously to work. The moisture and air which the leaves take in from the atmosphere, and all that the roots take from the soil, are digested or changed into vegetable matter by the foliage while exposed to sunshine; and all that is not wanted by the leaves themselves is generally carried down into the body of the root and stored up there for next year's use. So the biennial root becomes large and heavy, being a storehouse of nourishing matter, which man and animals are glad to use for food. In it, in the form of starch, sugar, mucilage, and in other nourishing and savory products, the plant (expending nothing in flowers or in show) has laid up the avails of its whole summer's work. For what purpose ? This plainly appears wiien the next season's growth begins. Then, fed by this great stock of nourishment, a stem shoots forth rapidly and strongly, divides into branches, bears flowers abundantly, and r^ens seeds, almost wholly at the expense of the nourishment accumulated in the root, which is now light, empty, and dead; and so is the whole plant by the time the seeds are ripe. 71. By stopping the flowering, biennials
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1858
