CHAPTER III. 



ASCENDING PART. HERBAGE. 



12. Caulis, the Stem, properly so called, serves to 

 elevate the leaves and flowers above the ground, as 

 in trees, shrubs, and many herbaceous plants, but 

 is not essential to all. 



13. The Stem is either annual, or perennial ; simple, 

 or branched ; leafy, scaly, or naked ; solid, or hol- 

 low ; upright, twining, climbing, procumbent, or 

 creeping; straight, spreading, or zigzag; round, 

 angular, winged, or compressed ; smooth, downy, 

 hairy, bristly, or prickly ; even, striated, furrowed, 

 or warty. 



14. A branched Stem (13) is either irregularly sub- 

 divided, or 



i. Caulis dichotomus, a forked Stem, having a 



flower at each fork or subdivision. 

 2. alternh ramosus, alternately branched, the 



branches being solitary, and variously directed. 

 3. opposite ramosus, oppositely branched, 



when two branches stand together, spreading in 



opposite directions. 

 4. verticillatus, whorled, many branches 



spreading in every direction from one point. 

 5 . determinate ramosus, abruptly branched, 



