MORPHOLOGY 



18 



serial stems are generally green when they are young, 

 and as they age they put on a coating of thick bark 

 and cork outside their woody growth. There are stems, 



FIG. 1. Part of a twig of Ruscus (the Butcher's Broom) showing the leaf-like 

 modified branches I, which are attached to normal stems. Beneath each is 

 seen the scale-like real leaf, s2, in whose axils the branches arise. Similar 

 Bcales, si, subtend ordinary branches. 



however, which never have the appearance of true 

 stems, but which simulate leaves. Perhaps the best 

 known example of this in the British flora is the Butcher's 

 Broom (Ruscus). A branch of this plant appears to 



