PARTS OF THE STEM. 69 



some grasses. Scape is a stalk springing from the root and bearing 

 fruit and flowers, but not leaves, as cowslip, dandelion, lily of the 

 valley, etc. Plants with scapes are often called stemless. Peduncle 

 is a part of the stem, bearing fruit, but not flowers nor leaves, as in 

 the plum and peach. When there is no peduncle the flowers are 

 called sessile, or sitting. Its length bears a relation to the species. 



Petiole or leaf-stalk, is also a part of the stem, supporting the leaf, 

 and is commonly green. The leaves and flowers are thus generally 

 supported by distinct foot-stalks, but sometimes one supports both. 

 Frond is applied to the leaf of the cryptogamous plants, or those with- 

 out visible sexual organs, as the fern where the leaf grows from the stem; 

 Stipe is the stem of such plants as the fern, the stem of the mushroom, 

 and the column supporting the down of the dandelion, etc. These are a 

 division of the stem, as boughs are of branches. 



Branches. These arise from buds and proceed from the trunk, dif- 

 fering little from the stem except in age. They are simple or divided. 

 They grow with or without order ; are sometimes opposite, alternate or 

 in rings round the trunk, as in the pine. They are erect, as in the 

 poplar, or pendent, as with the willow. As they grow older they 

 branch more and more until they become pendent. 



Bulbs often grow from the axils of the leaves of stems ; and, like 

 bulbous roots, contain the germ of new plants. They are buds of a 

 large and particular kind ; magazines in which are stored nutriment 

 secreted by the leaves. Being the parents of other individuals and 

 the origin of branches, they are the most important organs of plants. 

 Soon after their formation some separate themselves from the stem, fall 

 to the ground and take root. The banyan tree is remarkable for 

 throwing down stems which, taking root, form a small forest under 

 and around it. 



Stems are divided into the two great divisions we have elsewhere 

 spoken of, as exogens, (growing externally,) and end,ogens, (growing 

 internally. Stems are also woody, as birch ; pithy as elder; branched, 

 as oak ; naked, as saltwort ; hollow, as fennel ; simple, as lily and 

 tulip ; passing through a leaf, as woodbine and twining, as the hop and 

 bean. The stems of herbs are generally soft and watery, bearing 

 flowers once and then dying. 



The space between the collar of the root and the first leaf or bud, 

 and also between two or more leaves, is sometimes called the bole, and 

 the whole is called the trunk. The running stem is termed a runner ; 

 a short runner that does not take root is called an offset, and a larger 

 one as in cucumber, a vinelet, and a small stem running laterally from 

 a root is a sucker. When a stem bears permanent, or perennial, 

 branches, it is called a tree ; when these branches arise from the root, 

 the plant is called a shrub ; when small and much branched, a copse 

 shrub ; and when furnished with branches, not permanent, it is called 



