CHAPTER III. 



BRANCHING. 



Branches and axes of different orders — Branching of the root — 

 Branching of the shoot — Normal and Regular branching — 

 Induced irregularities — Adventitious branches — Accessory buds 

 — Dichotomy — Monopodial axes and racemose or indefinite 

 branching— Sympodial axes and cymose or definite branching. 



The word branch as ordinarily used expresses the scientific 

 meaning of the term so closely that we may accept 

 it without further definition — the branch resembles 

 the axis which produces it, as shown in branching 

 stems, roots, leaves, &c. The only difficulties which can 

 arise are where the branches, though morphologically of 

 like kind with the axis producing them, undergo modi- 

 fications which result in their appearing to be different 

 from the axis, as will be considered when we come to 

 speak of the adaptations which branches may be sub- 

 jected to. 



While branching is very common, it is by no means 

 imiversal either in the shoot or the root, and in the case 

 of many organs branches are exceptional, e.g. the parts of 

 the flower, adventitious roots, &c. 



The idea of a branch presupposes that of the axis 

 which bears it, and if we speak of the latter — root, shoot, 

 leaf, &c. — as a primary axis, then the branches borne 



