LECT. VI.] THE STEM. CLASSIFICATION. 281 



one or two years in the natural state of the plant. 

 It may be divided and subdivided into branches, 

 like the trunk ; and a greater number of these 

 diversities which have been described belong to 

 the stalk rather than to the trunk. 



3. STRAW (Culmus) is a name strictly con- 

 fined to the stems of the Grasses, Rushes, and 

 the gramineous cerealiae *. It is either hollow, or 

 partially filled with pith., and generally knotted, 

 articulated, and kneed ; but very rarely branched. 

 The knots are solid, confined to the articulations, 

 and give origin to the leaves, which are sheathing 

 at their base. It increases in length, tapering 

 gradually to the apex, but not in diameter, is 

 round, compressed, or triangular; and is fre- 

 quently hairy; but, as Sir J. E. Smith properly 

 observes, there is " no instance of such a scaly 

 " culm as Linnaeus has figured in his Philosophia 

 " Botanica, t. iv. f. 3f." 



4. SCAPE (Scapus), strictly speaking> is a 

 flower-stalk, as it bears the parts of fructification 

 only, and is entirely devoid of leaves ; but, never- 

 theless, as it proceeds immediately from the root, 

 it may be properly classed as a stem ^. It is al- 



* " Culmus truncus proprius Gramini, elevat folia fructi- 

 " ficationemque." Phil. Bot. 82. B. 



f Smith's Introduction, p. 128. 



f " Scapus truncus universalis elevans fructificationem nee 

 " folia : Narcissus, Pyrola, Convallaria, Hyacinthus." Phil. 

 Bot. 82. C. 



