When we were reading about seed leaves, I told you that by the stem and leaves of a plant you could tell whether it brought into the world more than one seed leaf. Now, when a stem like that of the rose is divided into three well-defined parts,—the skin, or bark, outside; next the woody part; and the soft white pith in the middle,—then you can be pretty sure that the plant had more than one seed leaf. [Illustration: FIG. 126] This picture (Fig. 126) shows you a section of a cornstalk. Here you do not see the three parts that were so plain in the rose stem, for the woody part is not gathered together in a ring: it is scattered through the soft part, so that you cannot distinguish the one from the other. Running lengthwise you see the scattered bundles of woody threads, the cut ends of which give the dotted look on top. Now, such a stem as this of the corn shows you that the plant was born with only one seed leaf. Try to remember the difference between these two stems. This next picture (Fig. 127) shows a part of the trunk or stem of the fir tree. [Illustration: FIG. 127] The dark outside circle is the bark. The rings within this are the wood. Each year one of these woody rings is added to the tree, the last ring of all lying next to the bark; so, if you count these, you can find out how many years the tree has lived. In the center we see the soft stuff called pith. What do these three divisions show? The trunk of the palm in the next picture (Fig. 128) is like the stem of the corn. The wood is not gathered in rings, but is scattered through the soft part in thread-like bundles, so that we cannot tell just the age of the tree. [Illustration: FIG. 128] And what else do you know about the palm? Why, you know that it came into the world with but one seed leaf. If it had had more than one, its stems would have had woody rings such as we see in the fir. In the schoolroom you cannot see palms and firs; but you can find a log in a wood pile which will show you just such woody rings as prove that the fir tree had more than one seed leaf. And you can look at a stalk brought from the cornfield that will show you how the trunk of the palm tells us that this tree began life with only one seed leaf. [Illustration: Decoration] “WELL DONE, LITTLE STEM” It is wonderful how much there is to learn about everything. We began this book with an apple, and I had no more idea than you that that apple was going to keep us busy for days. And then the apple reminded us of its cousins, the pear and plum and peach and cherry and rose. And if we had not stopped short, we should have been introduced to so many more cousins that we should have had neither room nor time for anything else. From fruits we went to seeds. At first it seemed almost as though we ought to finish up the seeds in two or three readings; but this did not prove to be the case.