the fleshy part consists of the thickened base of the stem, and the leaves
are merely dry scales. This is called a _corm_.

The potato is a thickened stem. It shows itself to be a stem, because it
bears organs. The leaves are reduced to little scales (eyelids), in the
axils of which come the buds (eyes). The following delightful experiment
has been recommended to me.

In a growing potato plant, direct upwards one of the low shoots and
surround it with a little cylinder of stiff carpet paper, stuffed with
sphagnum and loam. Cut away the other tuber-disposed shoots as they
appear. The enclosed shoot develops into a tuber which stands more or less
vertical, and the scales become pretty little leaves. Removing the paper,
the tuber and leaves become green, and the latter enlarge a little. A
better illustration of the way in which organs adapt themselves to their
conditions, and of the meaning of morphology, could hardly be found.

_Gray's First Lessons_. Sect. v, 65-88. _How Plants Grow_. Chap. I, 83-90.




IV.

BUDS AND BRANCHES.


1. There is an astonishing amount to be learned from naked branches,
and, if pursued in the right way, the study will be found exceedingly
interesting. Professor Beal, in his pamphlet on the New Botany,[1] says:--