afterwards. I hope only for a contemptuous heaping of coals on
my head by correction of my errors from them;--in some cases, my scientific
friends will, I know, give me forgiving aid;--but, for many reasons, I am
forced first to print the imperfect statement, as I can independently shape
it; for if once I asked for, or received help, every thought would be
frostbitten into timid expression, and every sentence broken by apology. I
should have to write a dozen of letters before I could print a line, and
the line, at last, would be only like a bit of any other botanical
book--trustworthy, it might be, perhaps; but certainly unreadable. Whereas
now, it will rather put things more forcibly in the reader's mind to have
them retouched and corrected as we go on; and our natural and honest
mistakes will often be suggestive of things we could not have discovered
but by wandering.

On these guarded conditions, then, I proceed to study, with my reader, the
first general laws of vegetable form.

* * * * *

{26}

CHAPTER II.

THE ROOT.

1. Plants in their perfect form consist of four principal parts,--the Root,
Stem, Leaf, and Flower. It is true that the stem and flower are parts, or
remnants, or altered states, of the leaves; and that, speaking with close
accuracy, we might say, a perfect plant consists of leaf and root. But the
division into these four parts is best for practical purposes, and it will
be desirable to note a few general facts about each, before endeavouring to
describe any one kind of plant. Only, because the character of the stem
depends on the nature of the leaf and flower, we must put it last in order
of examination; and trace the development of the plant first in root and
leaf; then in the flower and its fruit; and lastly in the stem.

2. First, then, the Root.

Every plant is divided, as I just said, in the main, into two parts, and
these have opposite natures. One part seeks the light; the other hates it.
One part feeds on the air; the other on the dust.

The part that loves the light is called the Leaf. It is an old Saxon word;
I cannot get at its origin. The part that hates the light is called the
Root. {27}

In Greek, [Greek: rhiza], Rhiza.[13]

In Latin, Radix, "the growing thing," which shortens, in French, into Race,
and then they put on the diminutive 'ine,' and get their two words, Race,
and Racine, of which we keep Race for animals, and use for vegetables a