to, melon, squash, and cucumber
vines are examples of such plants.

One use of the stems of plants then is to support the leaves, flowers
and fruit, and expose them to the much needed light and air.

=Experiment.=--Get a piece of grape vine and cut it into pieces four
or five inches long; notice that the cut surface appears to be full of
little holes. Cut a piece from between joints, place one end in your
mouth and blow hard. It will be found that air can be blown through
the piece of vine. Now pour about an inch of water in a tumbler or cup
and color it with a few drops of red ink. Then stand some of the
pieces of grape vine in the colored water. In a few hours the colored
water will appear at the upper ends of the sticks. Capillary force has
caused the colored water to rise through the small tubes in the vine.
Repeat this experiment with twigs of several kinds of trees and soft
green plants, as elm, maple, sunflower, corn, etc. It will not be
possible to blow through these twigs, but the red water will rise
through them by osmose, and in a few hours will appear at the upper
ends. If some leaves are left on the stems the colored water will
appear in them. Some white flowers can be colored in this way.

In this manner the stem carries plant food dissolved in water from the
roots to the leaves, and after the leaves have digested it carries it
back to various parts of the plant.

The stem then serves as a conductor or a passage for food and moisture
between roots and leaves.

Visit a strawberry bed or search for wild strawberry plants. Notice
that from the older and larger plants are sent out long, slender,
leafless stems with a bud at the tip. These stems are called runners.
Find some runners that have formed roots at the tip and have developed
a tuft of leaves there, forming new plants. Find some black raspberry
plants and notice that some of the canes have bent over and taken root
at the tips sending up a new shoot and thus forming a new plant. You
know how rapidly wire grass and Bermuda grass will overrun the garden
or farm. One way in which they do this is by sending out underground
stems which take root at the joints and so form new plants.

Another use of the stem then is to produce new plants.

On the farm we make use of this habit of stems when we wish to
produce new white potato plants. We cut an old potato in pieces and
plant them. The buds in the eyes grow and form new plants. One way of
getting new gr