OUTLINES OF BOTANY. xiil 



Caulocarpic, if, after flowering, the whole or part of the plant lire* 

 through the winter and produces fresh flowers another season. These in- 

 clude Herbaceous perennials, in which the greater part of the plant dies 

 after flowering, leaving only a small perennial portion called the Stock or 

 Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Undershrubs (suffruticose or suffrutes- 

 cent plants) in which the flowering branches, forming a considerable portion 

 of the plant die down after flowering, but leave a more or less prominent 

 perennial and woody base ; Shrubs (frutescent or fruticose plants), in which 

 the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but branches 

 near the base, and does not much exceed a man's height ; and Trees 

 (arboreous or arborescent plants) when the height is greater and forms a 

 woody trunk, scarcely branching from the base. Bushes are low, much 

 branched shrubs. 



13. The terms Monocarpic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the 

 other distinctions enumerated above are universally attended to, although 

 more useful to the gardener than to the botanist, who cannot always assign 

 to them any precise character. Monocarpic plants, which require more 

 than two or three years to produce their flowers, will often, under certain 

 circumstances, become herbaceous perennials, and are generally confounded 

 with them. Truly perennial herbs will often commence flowering the first 

 year, and have then all the appearance of annuals. Many tall shrubs and 

 trees lose annually their flowering branches like undershrubs. And the 

 same botanical species may be an annual or a perennial, an herbaceous per- 

 ennial or an undershrub, an undershrub or a shrub, a shrub or tree, accord- 

 ing to climate, treatment, or variety. 



1 4. Plants are usually terrestrial, that is, growing on earth ; or aquatic, 

 i. e. growing in water ; but sometimes they may be found attached by their 

 roots to other plants, in which case they are epiphytes when simply growing 

 upon other plants without penetrating into their tissue, parasites when their 

 roots penetrate into and derive more or less nutriment from the plant to 

 which they are attached. 



15. The simplest form of the perfect plant, the annual, consists of 



(1) The Root, or descending axis, which grows downwards from the 

 stem, divides and spreads in the earth or water, and* absorbs food for the 

 plant through the extremities of its branches. 



(2) The Stem, or ascending axis, which grows upwards from the root, 

 branches and bears first one or more leaves in succession, then one or more 

 flowers, and finally one or more fruits. It contains the tissues or other 

 channels (217) by which the nutriment absorbed by the roots is conveyed 

 in the form of sap (192) to the leaves or other points of the surface of the 

 plant, to be elaborated or digested (218), and afterwards redistributed over 

 different parts of the plant for its support and growth. 



(3) The Leaves, usually flat, green, and horizontal, are variously ar- 

 ranged on the stem and its branches. They elaborate or digest (218) the 

 nutriment brought to them through the stem, absorb carbonic acid gas 

 from the air, exhaling the superfluous oxygen, and returning the assimi- 

 lated sap to the stem. 



(4) The Flowers, usually placed at or towards the extremities of the 

 branches. They are destined to form the future seed. When perfect and 

 complete they consist: 1st, of a pistil in the centre, consisting of one or 

 more carpels, each containing the germ of one or more seeds ; 2nd, of one 

 or more stamens outside the pistil, whose action is necessary toferftlf^thft 



