140 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAl'KY. 



in the woody brandies or trunks, as is seen in several 

 species of Convolvulus with woody stems. 



Article II. — Of the Branches. 



Stems are said to be Simple (simples) when they 

 liave no branches or ramitications : the greater number, 

 on the contrary, are Branched (rameuses, hranchues), 

 that is to say, divided into branches which bear the 

 leaves and flowers ; for the branches which only bear 

 flowers (except in plants devoid of leaves, as in Oro- 

 hanche ramosa,) are only considered as peduncles, and 

 their presence does not prevent the stem from still being 

 designated as simple. 



The branches (rami) always spring from the axils of 

 the leaves (axillares), or very near them, either a little 

 above (siipra-axillares), or on one side (extra-axillares). 

 In some plants, as the Geranium, they arise opposite the 

 leaves (oppositifolii) ; there is then almost always a 

 fixed connexion between the primitive position of the 

 branches and tliat of the leaves ; but after some time 

 this regularity of the primitive position is rarely to be 

 recognised, on account of the great number of branches 

 which die in their infancy. If we take a Pear tree, for 

 example, we shall see a small bud in the axil of each 

 leaf: all these buds commence by growing a little ; but 

 that, or those, which, by some peculiar cause, increase 

 the most, soon attract all the sap, and the others there- 

 fore perish, sometimes being still in the state of buds, 

 at others having already formed little branches : such is 

 the general cause of the irregularity of the old branches, 

 com[)ared with the regiflarity of their origin. This 

 irregularity only extends, however, to a certain limit in 

 each species. 



