iv INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 
26. Suckers are young plants formed at the end of creeping, underground 
rootstocks. 
27. Scions, runners, and stolons, or stoles, are names given to young plants 
formed at the end, or at the nodes (28) of branches or stocks, creeping 
wholly or partially above-ground, and sometimes to the creeping stocks 
themselves. 
28. A node is a definite point on the stem or on a branch, at which one 
or more leaves are given off, and an internode is the portion of a stem com- 
prised between two nodes. The nodes are perviows when the pith passes 
continuously through them, and closed or impervious when it is interrupted 
by partitions, as in grasses, etc. 
29. Leafbuds are small conical bodies, usually covered with scales, and 
found in the azils (33) of leaves of the previous season or of earlier growth ; 
when occurring in other positions, as they sometimes do, they are con- 
sidered adventitious or irregular. They contain the germs of future 
branches. 
30. Branches (or leaves) are, 
opposite, when two proceed from the same node at opposite sides of 
the stem; whorled or verticillate, when several proceed from the 
same node, arranged regularly, like the spokes of a wheel, 
round the stem. 
geminate, or in pairs, when two proceed from the same node, 
at the same side of the stem. 
ternate, in threes, when three spring from one point. 
fascicled, when several spring from the same or nearly the samo 
apparent point. 
alternate, when one only proceeds from each node, one on one side, 
and the next above or below on the opposite side of the stem. 
decussate, when opposite, but each pair placed at right angles to the 
one next above or below it ; 
distichous, when in two ranks ; tristichous, in three, etc. 
scattered, when placed irregularly round the stem; but this is often 
confounded with alternate. 
secund, when all start from or turn towards one side of the stem, 
like the teeth of a rake. 
31. Branches are, 
forked, when they divide at the end into two or more equal 
branches ; 
dichotomous, when each 2-pronged fork is again divided, and this 
mode of division several times repeated ; 
trichotomous, when the forks are 3-pronged, and this repeated ; 
unbellate, when divided at the apex into several branches, and the 
central one not larger than the rest. 
32. The straw-like stems of grasses and some other endogens are 
often called culms. 
§ 5. The Leaves. 
83. Leaves are expansions which issue laterally from the stem and 
branches, and usually bear a leafbud (29) in their axil, 7.e. in the angle 
formed by the leaf and the branch. 
34. An ordinary leaf consists of an expanded, usually flat d/ade or 
lamina, joined to the stem by a footstalk or petiole. The extremity of the 
lamina next the stem is the dase, the opposite extremity the apex, and a 
line separating the upper and under surfaces, the margin. 
35. Leaves are, 
sessile, when the blade rests on the stem without the intervention 
of a petiole. 
