73, 74.] 



THE STEM. 



87 



plant. The Hobble-bush and Black-raspberry do this 

 naturally, and gardeners imitate the process in many 

 plants. 



218. The Scion is any healthy twig or branchlet 

 bearing one or more buds, used by the gardeners in 

 the common process of grafting. Slips and cuttings 

 are fragments of ordinary branches or stems, consist- 

 ing of young wood bearing one or more buds. These 

 strike root when planted in the ground. So the Grape- 

 vine and Hop. The Offset is merely a scion severed 

 from the parent and set in the ground to strike root. 



219. The Runner is a prostrate, filiform branch, 

 issuing from certain short-stemmed herbs, extending 

 itself along the surface of the ground, striking root at 

 its end without being buried. Thence leaves arise, and 

 a new plant, which in turn sends out new runners, as 

 in the Strawberry. 



251, A Strawberry plant (Fragarfe vesca) sending out a runner. 



220. The Node, or joint of the stem, marks a defi- 

 nite point of a peculiar organization, where the leaf 

 with its axillary bud arises. The nodes occur at regu- 

 lar intervals, and the spaces between them are termed 

 INTERNODES. They provide for the symmetrical arrange- 

 ment of the leaves and branches of the stem. In the 



