THE STEM. 43 
129. Creeping (repens), or a soboles, when it lies on the 
earth, and takes root in many points: Creeping Loosestrife 
or Moneywort (Lysimachia Nummularia). The creeping 
root, (95), should also be termed a creeping stem. And the 
Rhizoma or Rootstock is also a creeping stem. 
130. When a branch comes off from a plant beneath the 
surface, and, on emerging, becomes like a stem, it is termed 
a sucker. 
131. Stoloniferous, sarmentose, or trailing, when the 
principal stem gives out laterally smaller ones capable of 
striking root and producing new plants: Strawberry (Fra- 
garia vesca); Common Bugle (Ajuga reptans). | These 
lateral stems are called stolons, runners, or scions. 
132. Stems are either Simple or Compound.— When there 
are no marked ramifications, the stem is simple, as the Great 
Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus), Foxglove (Digitalis purpu- 
_ rea). Jt is compound when it divides into a ge or fees 
number of branches. 
_ 133. The plant is called a tree, when Shake 56 & disthane 
trunk or stem, bearing perennial branches,—a shrub, when 
the branches are perennial, but come directly from the sur- 
face of the ground,—there being no trunk above ground,— 
undershrub, when the branches are woody and wholly or in 
great part annual,—herb, when the stem is annual and soft 
and greenish. A low tree is termed an arbusele. 
1. CULMUS, OR CULM, 
134, This kind of stem is peculiar to the Grasses, Cy- : 
peraceze, and Juncee. It is a simple stem, generally hollow, 
and in some divided at various distances by knots, from which 
sheathing leaves arise. De Candolle applies the term Cala-_ 
‘mus to those hollow stems without knots or i as 
