STEM. 



61 



Fig. 23. 



6th. Frond. (Fig. 23.) The 

 term Frond, belongs entirely to 

 Cryptogamous plants. This term 

 however is applied to the leaf 

 rather than the stem ; in this 

 sketch of the fern the leafy part 

 is the frond ; this bears the flow- 

 er and fruit. Linnaeus consi- 

 dered the leaves of palm trees 

 as fronds ; we shall hereafter 

 observe upon the different in- 

 ternal structure of their stems 

 from those of the oak anc^ other 

 plants which are termed cauline, because their stem is a caulis. 

 Plants with fronds and stipes are sometimes called by the gene- 

 ral name of s/?ped-plants ; they are monocotyledonous. The 

 stem of the fern (Fig. 23, #), is called a stipe. By observa- 

 tions of geologists it is ascertained that stiped plants were cre- 

 ated before cauline ones ; since petrifactions of the former are 

 found in the lower formations of the earth, while no remains of 

 cauline plants are ever found in them. Here is the sketch of 

 a fern ; its stem a, is called a frond. 



7th. Stipe (Fig. 24), is the stem or leafless part 

 of a frond, or the stalk of a fungus or mushroom, 

 c The te;rm is also applied to the slender thread, 

 which in many of the compound flowers, elevates 

 a the hairy crown, with which the seeds are furnish- 

 ed, and connects it with the seed. Thus, in the 

 b seeds of the Dandelion, which is here represented, 

 the column (Fig. 24, a), standing on the seed (), and elevating 

 the down (c), is the stipe. 

 Fig. 25. 



Here is a mushroom with the cap (Fig. 

 25, d), elevated on its stipe (e). 



Having considered the different kinds 

 of stems, according to the division which 

 most botanical writers have made, we will 

 now notice some general circumstances 

 relating to them, without reference to any 

 one of these classes of stalks in particular. 

 The coherence or hardness of stems has 

 given rise to the following distinctions : 



Frond Which part of the fern is its frond ? Which the srtipe ? Difference 

 between stiped and cauline plants Which first formed ? Different applica- 

 tions of the terra stipe Stipe of a dandelion seedOf a fungus. 



6 



