72 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
87. Stemless Plants. — As will be shown later (Chap- 
ter XXX), plants live subject to a very fierce competition 
among themselves and exposed to almost constant attacks 
from animals. 
While plants with long stems find it to their advantage 
to reach up as far as possible into the sunlight, the cinque- 
foil, the white clover, 
the dandelion, some 
spurges, the knot- 
grass, and hundreds 
of other kinds of 
plants have found 
safety in hugging 
the ground. 
Any plant which 
can grow in safety 
under the very feet 
of grazing animals 
will be especially 
likely to make its 
way in the world, 
since there are many 
FIG. 38. — The ‘pecan a so-called places where it can 
Stemless Plant. flourish while ordi- 
nary plants would be destroyed. The bitter, stemless 
dandelion, which is almost uneatable for most animals, 
unless cooked, which lies too near the earth to be fed 
upon by grazing animals, and which bears being trodden 
on with impunity, is a type of a large class of hardy weeds. 
The so-called stemless plants, like the dandelion (Fig. 38), 
and some violets, are not -really stemless at all, but send 
