THE STEM OF VASCULAR PLANTS. 127 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE STEM OF VASCULAR PLANTS. 



Section I. 

 Of the Stem in General. 



Art. 1. — Of the Stem, properly so called. 



The Stem (caulis ; tige) is that fundamental part of 

 plants which has always a tendency to rise vertically 

 with more or less energy, and which has the root at its 

 base, and the leaves above, when the plant is destined to 

 have any ; or, as Desvauz says, the stem is the in- 

 termediate organ between the roots and the leaves. 

 Tliis organ, which is that from which all the others 

 spring in different directions, is not absent in any vas- 

 cular plant: sometimes it exists veiy evidently and highly 

 developed ; at others it is stunted and concealed under 

 ground, in such a manner as to appear as if there were 

 none, — as Hedwig has affirmed since 1793, as I have 

 established since 1804, and as Dutrochet has since con- 

 firmed by some beautiful observations. The plants in 

 which it is very visible have been called in Latin 

 caulescentes, a word which some authors have preserved 

 in French. Those in which it is scarcely apparent liave 

 been named, in contradistinction, acaules or suhacaules. 



