om 
STEMS. Te, 51 
plants as the primrose and the dandelion be cut down to a 
fraction of an inch in length. It may take on apparently 
root-like forms, as in many grasses and sedges, or become 
thickened by underground deposits of starch and other plant- 
food, as in the iris, the potato, and the crocus. Condensed 
forms of stem may exist above ground, or, on the other hand, 
ped 
* Fic. 39.—Stem of ‘ Smilax” (Myrsiphyllum). 
l, seale-like leaves ; Cl, cladophyll, or leaf-like branch, growing in the axil of the 
leaf; ped, flower-stalk, growing in the axil of a leaf. 
branches may be flat and thin enough closely to imitate leaves. 
In short, the stem manifests great readiness in adapting itself 
to the most varied conditions of existence. 
