INTRODUCTION". 6 



of the term rliizome. Properly speaking, the rootstock either is the same as 

 the rliizome, or it may include the rhizome and a portion of the root, or the 

 rhizome may form part of an annual stem, and not of the stock. 



The term tuher is applied to a short, thick, more or less succulent root- 

 stock or rhizome, as well as to a root of that shape, although some botanists 

 propose to restrict its meaning to the one or to the other. An Orchis tuber, 

 called by some a Jcnob, is an annual tuberous rootstock, with one bud at 

 the top. A potato is an annual tuberous rootstock, with several buds. 



A bulb is a stock of a shape approacliing to globiilar, usually rather coni- 

 cal above, and flattened underneath, in which the bud or buds are concealed 

 under scales. These scales are the more or less thickened bases of the de- 

 cayed leaves of the preceding year, or of the undeveloped leaves of the future 

 year, or of both. Bulbs are annual or perennial, usually underground or 

 close to the ground, but occasionally buds in the axils of the upper leaves 

 become transformed into bulbs. 



A corm is a rootstock, usvially annual, shaped like a bulb, but in which 

 the bud or buds are not covered by scales. 



§ 4. The Stem. 

 Stems are 



erect, when they ascend perpendicularly from the root or stock. 



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. 



prostrate, when they lie still closer to the ground. 



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

 quently applied to any rhizomes or roots which spread horizontally. 



Weak chmbing stems are said to ttvine, when they support themselves by 

 winding spirally round any object, simply to climli, when they support tliem- 

 selves by their leaves, or by special organs called tendrils, which are usually 

 either imperfectly-formed leafstalks or flowerstalks. 



Suckers are young plants formed at the end of creejaing underground 

 rootstocks. 



Scions, runners, and sfolones or stoles, are names given to young plants 

 formed at the end or at the joints of branches or stocks creeping wholly or 

 partially above-ground, or sometimes to the creeping stocks themselves. 



A node is a point of the stem or its branches which bears one or more 

 leaves or branches, the brancli almost always proceeding from the axil of a 

 leaf. An internode is tlie portion of the stem comprised between two nodes. 

 Branches or leaves are 



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

 the stem. 



whorled, or verticillate, when several proceed from the same node, ar- 

 ranged regularly round the stem. 



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

 and the next above on the opposite side of the stem. 



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

 one next above or below it. 



scattered, when irregularly arranged rovmd 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. 



B 2 



