CHAP. If. STEM. 65 



of either term is superfluous. This has been ah-eady remarked 

 with respect to cuhnus by Link, who very justly inquires 

 (Linmea, ii. 235.) ""'cur Graminibus caulem denegares et cul- 

 mum diceres ? " 



The Runner, fig. 26. [sarmentum of Fuchs. and Linnaeus, 

 coulant of the French), is a prostrate fihform stem, forming at 

 its extremity roots and a young plant, which 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 Jlac/eUam by some modern botanists, but that term pro- 

 perly applies to the trailing shoots of the vine. 



The Sucker, fig. 28. [surculus), called by the French dragon 

 or surgeon, 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 producing leaves and 

 branches, and subsequently roots from its base, as in Rosa 

 spinosissima, and many other plants. Link applies the term 

 soholes to this form of stem. From this has been distinguished 

 by some botanists the Stole {stolo, Lat. ; and jet, French) ; 

 which may be considered the reverse of the sucker, it differing 

 in proceeding from the stem above the surface of the earth, 

 into which it afterwards descends and takes root, as in Aster 

 junceus; but there does not appear to be any material distinc- 

 tion 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 indi- 

 cated a vigorous young shoot without branches. 



The shoots thrown up from the subterranean part of the 

 stem of Monocotyledonous plants, as the Pineapple for ex- 

 ample (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, whence 

 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 



F 



