Because a long hollow stem would be liable to bend and break. But the joints are so many points where the fibres are bound together, and the structure greatly strengthened.
"Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us."—Psalm xlvii.
1177. Why have the berries of the mistletoe a thick viscid juice?
Because the mistletoe is a parasitical plant, growing upon the bark of other trees. It will not grow in the ground; its seeds are therefore filled with an exceedingly sticky substance, which serves to attach them to the bark of trees, to which the berries attach themselves at once, by throwing out tough fibres; and the next year the plant grows.
Fig. 75.—THE MISTLETOE.