SECTION 6.] 



STEMS. 



39 



89. Stems above ground, through differences ill durat.vn, texture, and 

 size, form herbs, shrubs, trees, etc., or in other terms are 



Herbaceous, dying down to the ground every year, or after blossoming. 



Suffrutescent, slightly woody below, there surviving from year to year. 



Suffruticose or Frutescent, when low stems are decidedly woody below, 

 but herbaceous above. 



Fruticose or Shrubby, woody, living from year to year, and of considerable 

 size, not, however, more than three or four times the height of a man. 



Arborescent, when tree-like in appearance or mode of growth, or ap- 

 proaching a tree in size. 



Arboreous, when forming a proper tree-trunk. 



90. As to direction taken in growing, stems may, instead of growing 

 upright or erect, be 



Diffuse, that is, loosely spreading in all directions. 

 Declined, when turned or bending over to one side. 

 Decumbent, reclining on the ground, as if too weak to stand. 

 Assurgent or Ascending, rising obliquely upwards. 

 Procumbent or Prostrate, lying flat on the ground from the first. 

 Creeping or Repent, prostrate on or just beneath the ground, and striking 

 root, as does the White Clover, the Partridge-berry, etc. 



Climbing or Scandent, ascending by clinging to other objects for support, 

 whether by tendrils, as do the Pea, Grape- Vine, and Passion-flower and 

 Virginia Creeper (Fig. 92, 93) ; by their twisting leaf-stalks, as the Virgin's 

 Bower ; or by rootlets, like the Ivy, Poison Ivy, and Trumpet Creeper. 



Twining or Voluble, when coiling spirally around other stems or 

 supports ; like the Morning-Glory (Fig. 90) and the Hop. 



91. Certain kinds 

 of stems or branches, 

 appropriated to spe- 

 cial uses, have re- 

 ceived distinct substantive names ; such as the following : 



92. A Culm, or straw-stem, such as that of Grasses 

 and Sedges. 



93. A Caudex is the old name for such a peculiar 

 trunk as a Palm-stem ; it is also used for an upright and 

 thick rootstock. 



94. A Sucker is a branch rising from stems under 

 ground. Such are produced abundantly by the Rose, 

 Raspberry, and other plants said to multiply " by the 

 root." If we uncover them, we see at once the great 

 difference between these subterranean brandies and real 



90 roots. They are only creeping branches under ground. 



Remarking how the upright shoots from these branches become separate 



Fig. 90. Twining or voluble stem of Morning-Glory, 



