CHAPTER VIII. 



TRUNKS. 



A knowledge of the various kinds of stalks by which 



he herbage is elevated above the surface of the earth 



is often of great practical utility, for these varieties are 



the basis of botanical distinctions, always convenient 



rind sometimes indespensable. 



1. STEM.— This term is strictly confined to that 

 iniversal trunk, which sustains leaves, flowers and 

 fruit ; being herbaceous in most annual stems, and 

 .voody in trees and shrubs. In the White Lily, it is 

 simple and undivided, but in most vegetables, it is 

 branched, and the arrangement which its branches as- 

 sume, gives to every plant its peculiar habit and form. 



With respect to Direction and mode of growth, the 

 •*tem is erect as in Sun-flower ; procumbent or trailing 

 on the ground, as in Moss Pink, Phlox subulata and 

 Carpet weed ; repent or creeping when it trails on the 

 earth, emitting radical fibres from its inferior surface, 

 as in Trailing Arbutus and Creeping Crowfoot, Ranun- 

 culus repens ; reclined when the superior extremity 

 of an erect stem is bent down so as to form an arch 

 with the horizon, as in Raspberry ; ascending when 

 the extremity of a procumbent stem is erect. When 

 a creeping stem sends out roots only from its joints, 

 as in Strawberry, it is termed sarmentose. Weak stems 

 frequently attach themselves to other bodies for sup- 

 port. The Vine and the Passion flower, Fig 20, climb 

 by their spiral tendrils, and the common creeper by its 

 radiating fibres. The last is properly a radicant or 



