182 RUNNER SUCKER STOOL OFFSET. [BOOK i. 



The Runner t fig. 28. (sarmentum of Fuchs and Linnaeus), 

 is a prostrate filiform stem, forming at its extremity roots and 

 a young plant, which plant itself gives birth to new runners, 

 as in the Strawberry. Rightly considered, it is a prostrate 

 viviparous scape, that is to say, a scape which produces roots 

 and leaves instead of flowers. It has been called flagellum by 

 some modern botanists, but that term rather applies to the 

 trailing shoots of the vine. 



The Sucker, fig. 30, (surculus}, is a branch which proceeds 

 from the neck of a plant beneath the surface, and becomes 

 erect as soon as it emerges from the earth, immediately pro- 

 ducing leaves and branches, and subsequently roots from its 

 base, as in Rosa spinosissima, and many other plants. Link 

 applies the term soboles to this form of stem. From this has 

 been distinguished by some botanists the Stole (stolo), which 

 may be considered the reverse of the sucker, differing in pro- 

 ceeding from the stem above the surface of the earth, into 

 which it afterwards descends and takes root, as in Aster jun- 

 ceus; but there does not appear to be any material distinction 

 between them. Willdenow confines the term surculus to the 

 creeping stems of Mosses. By the older botanists a sucker was 

 always understood by the word stolo, and surculus indicated 

 a vigorous young shoot without branches. 



The shoots thrown up from the subterranean part of the 

 stem of Monocotyledonous plants, as the Pineapple for exam- 

 ple (the Adnata, Adnascentia, or Appendices of Fuchsius), 

 are of the nature of suckers. 



It may be here remarked, that stolo has given rise to the 

 name stool, which is applied to the parent plant from which 

 young individuals are propagated by the process of layering, 

 as it is technically called by gardeners. The branch laid down 

 was termed propago by the older botanists, and the layer was 

 called malleolus, which literally signifies a hammer ; the name 

 being thus applied, because, when the layer is separated from 

 its parent, its lower end resembles a hammer-head, of which 

 the new plant represents the handle. 



The Offset, fig. 31, (propagulum, Link), is a short lateral 

 branch in some herbaceous plants, terminated by a cluster of 

 leaves, and capable of taking root when separated from the 



