Xvi OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 



twiggy or virgate, when at the same time they are slender, stiff, and scarcely 

 branched. 



decumbent or ascending, when they spread horizontally, or nearly so, 

 at the base, and then turn upwards and become erect. 



procumbent, when they spread along the ground the whole or the 

 greater portion of their length ; diffuse, when at the same time very much and 

 rather loosely branched. 



prostrate, when they lie still closer to the ground. 



creeping, when they emit roots at their nodes. This term is also fre- 

 quently applied to any rhizomes or roots which spread horizontally. 



tufted or ccsspitose, when very short, close, and many together from 

 the same stock. 



29. Weak climbing stems are said to twine, when they support them- 

 selves by winding spirally round any object ; such stems are also called 

 voluble. When they simply climb without twining, they support them- 

 selves by their leaves, or by special clasping organs called tendrils (169), 

 or sometimes, like the Ivy, by small root-like excrescences, 



30. Suckers are young plants formed at the end of creeping, under- 

 ground rootstocks. Scions, runners, and stolons or stoles, are names given 

 to young plants formed at the end or at the nodes (31) of branches or 

 stocks creeping wholly or partially aboveground, or sometimes to the creep- 

 ing stocks themselves. 



31. A node is a point of the stem or its branches at which one or more 

 leaves, branches, or leaf-buds (16) are given off. An internode is the por- 

 tion of the stem comprised between two nodes. 



32. Branches or leaves are 



opposite, when two proceed from the same node on opposite sides of 

 the stem. 



whorled or verticillate (in a whorl or verticil), when several proceed 

 from the same node, arranged regularly around the stem ; geminate, ternate, 

 fascicled or fasciculate when two, three, or more proceed from the same 

 node on the same side of the stem. A tuft of fasciculate leaves is usually 

 in fact an axillary leafy branch, so short that the leaves appear to proceed 

 all from the same point. 



alternate, when only one proceeds from each node, one on one side and 

 the next above or below on the opposite side of the stem. 



decussate, when opposite, but each pair placed at right angles to the 

 next pair above or below it ; distichous, when regularly arranged one 

 above another in two opposite rows, one on each side of the stem ; tristi- 

 chous, when in three rows, etc. (92). 



scattered, when irregularly arranged round the stem ; frequently, how- 

 ever, botanists apply the term alternate to all branches or leaves that are 

 neither opposite nor whorled. 



secund, when all start from or are turned to one side of the stem. 



33. Branches are dichotomous, when several times forked, the two 

 branches of each fork being nearly equal ; trichotomous, when there are 

 three nearly equal branches at each division instead of two ; but when the 

 middle branch is evidently the principal one, the stem is usually said to 

 have two opposite branches ; umbellate, when divided in the same manner 

 into several nearly equal branches proceeding from the same point. If 

 however the central branch is larger than the two or more lateral ones, 

 the stem is said to have opposite or whorled branches, as the case may bo. 



