io6 



CONDENSED TYPE OF STEMS 



fication is of great advantage in many ways. The vital parts 

 of such plants are only slightly exposed and consequently suffer 

 little from grazing animals or other sources of injury, as in 

 plantains, dandelions, etc. Frequently these short stems are 

 associated with an abundance of foods that are stored in roots 

 or other organs. Such plants can quickly send up and mature 

 their flower stalks or leafy stems and thus avoid unfavorable 

 conditions, as drought, competition with larger vegetation that 



Fig. 73. Shortened types of stems: A, corm of jack-in-the-pulpit. At 

 left surface view showing lateral buds, roots and sheathing leaf arising from 

 top of shortened stem. At right sectional view with folded leaf, /, in bud at 

 apex of stem. B, bulb type of shortened stems. At left bulb of onion showing 

 the ensheathing leaves which are swollen at their bases with food, thus forming 

 the bulb. At right, section of a bulb of hyacinth showing the fleshy leaves 

 attached to the very short stem and in the center of the bulb a flower cluster. 



will appear later, etc. This habit has been made very con- 

 spicuous by cultivation in many plants, as the carrot, turnip, 

 radish, and beet. But in nature the very short, almost fiat stems 



