STRUCTURAL BOTANY 37 



sometimes on the brandies of tlic root, as in White Clover, 

 ill Spiraea filipeiidula (a garden plant), etc. Fascicled 

 roots are also called inaxial roots / and secondary ones 

 adventitiaus. Among the several peculiar forms of roots 

 are also some, which we call coralline root, as that of 

 Corallorhiza. 



II. THE STEM. 



78, The stem is that part of the plant which, origi- 

 nating in the plumule of the embiyo, tends upward in its 

 growth into the light and air, to produce, under their in- 

 fluence, leaves, flowers, and fruit. 



The stem, generally called, with all it bears, the as- 

 cending axis of the plant, produces buds, resembling that 

 from which it proceeded — namely, the plumule. All or- 

 ■ gans produced by the stem are merely repetitions of itself. 

 The cmbiyo is a primary stem (called radicle), with one or 

 two — seldom more — leaves (called cotyledons) at its sum- 

 mit, which support a bud. The interstices between the 

 successive (alternate, coupled, or whorled) leaves of the stem 

 are merely new representations of the embryo- stem, and 

 called internodes or joints. The points, where^the inter- 

 nodes are united, or, as is sometimes the case, plainly ar- 

 ticulated or jointed, are called nodes (popularly hnots or 

 joints). Since the internodes are repetitions of the stem- 

 part of the radicle (the first internode), the apex of the 

 stem, or of the uppermost internode, is always crowned 

 with a bud. This bud contains the future continuation of 

 the stem in miniature, just as the plumule contained the 

 stem. These remarks may suffice to explain what the 

 botanists mean, when they say : a hud is a stein or Iranch 

 in an undeveloped state. 



