54 ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK I. 



place in so remarkable a degree as to give their stems a pecu- 

 liar character ; as, for instance, in the Bamboo, in which it 

 causes diaphragms that continue to grow and harden, notwith- 

 standing the powerfully rapid horizontal distension to which 

 the stems of that plant are subject. In all cases, without 

 exception, a leaf-bud or buds is formed at a node immediately 

 above the base of the leaf; generally such a bud is either 

 sufficiently apparent to be readily recognised by the naked 

 eye, or, at least, it becomes apparent at some time or other : 

 but in certain plants, as Heaths, the buds are often never 

 discoverable ; nevertheless, they always exist, in however ru- 

 dimentary a state, as is proved by their occasional develope- 

 ment under favourable or uncommon circumstances. By some 

 writers nodes, upon which buds are obviously formed, are 

 called compound, or artiphyllous ; and those in which no ap- 

 parent buds ai'e discoverable, are named simple, or pleiophyllous : 

 they are also said to be divided, when they do not surround the 

 stem, as in the apple and other alternate-leaved genera; or 

 entire, when they do surround it, as in grasses and umbelliferous 

 plants : they are furtlier said to be jiervious, Avhen the pith 

 passes through them without interruption; or closed, when the 

 canal of the pith is interrupted, as if by a partition. Per- 

 vious and divided, and closed and entire nodes, usually ac- 

 company each otlier. For other remarks upon this subject, 

 see Link's Elementa. 



All the divisions of a stem are in general terms called 

 branches (rami) ; but it is occasionally found convenient to 

 designate particular kinds of branches by special names. 

 Thus, the twigs, or youngest shoots, are called ramuli, or 

 branchlets {hrindilles or ramilles, Fr.), and by the older bo- 

 tanists Jlagella ; the assemblage of branches which forms the 

 head of a forest tree is called the coma : cyma is sometimes 

 used to express the same thing, but improperly. Shoots 

 which have not completed their growth have received the 

 name of innovations, a term usually applied in mosses. ^Vhen 

 such a shoot is covered with scales upon its first appearance, 

 as the Asparagus, it is called turio : by the old botanists all 

 such shoots were named asparagi. When a shoot is long and 

 flexible, it receives the name of vimen. This word, however, 



