Excerpt from The Forest Trees of Britain, Vol. 1 of 2 The vascular system comprises all those parts of plants which are known in common language by the names of fibres, nerves, veins, tubes, &c., all of which may be classed under the term ves sels. They are found in the root, trunk, branches, leaves, and flowers of trees, collected into bundles, but often so closely connected as to have the appearance of simple tubes. They are either of an uniform continuous substance throughout their whole length, when they constitute woody fibre; or are composed of a thread, or collection of threads, twisted spirally, so as to form a tube, and capable of being unrolled with elasticity. If a leaf of the strawberry, or young twig of the cornel, be broken, and the parts gently torn asunder, they will be discovered like fine cob webs uniting the ragged edges. Under the micro scope, if stretched, they resemble a corkscrew; but if examined at rest, their appearance may be compared to that of a bell-spring, that is a coil of wire wound round a cylinder which has been afterwards removed. They are called spiral vessels. A third form of vessels is the duct. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.