The Stems of Plants
"Suppose we have a chat about the stems of plants," said Fred. "The stem, you know, makes its way upward from the ground, to get as much light an air as it can for the plant.
"The stems of plants are not all alike. Let us take the trees first.
"They live year after year. They have a hard woody stem, which we call the trunk. At the top of thetrunk are the branches. Bushes and shrubs have a great have a great many stems, but they too are hard and woody.""But," said Norah, "most of our plant in the garden either die down to the ground or perish entirely in the winter. What do we call them, Fred?" "They are called herbs," said Fred. "They havesoft green stems."
"These herbs too," said Willie, "have all sorts of stems. Let us try and think of what teacher said about them.""Well," said Fred, "most of them, as we can see by looking round the garden, have strong, stout, upright stems.
"Some, like the scarlet-bean and the