STEMS. 



61 



plants as the primrose and the dandelion be cut down to a 

 fraction of an inch in length. It may take on apparently 

 root-like forms, as in many grasses and sedges, or become 

 thickened by underground deposits of starch and other plant- 

 food, as in the iris, the potato, and the crocus. Condensed 

 forms of stem may exist above ground, or, on the other hand, 



Fig. 39. ---Stem of "Smilax" <Myrsipliyllum). 



I, scale-like leaves ; CI, cladophyll, or leaf-like branch, growing in tlie axil of the 



leaf ; ped, flower-stalk, growing in the axil of a leaf. 



brq,nehes may be flat and thin enough closely to imitate leaves. 

 In short, the stem manifests great readiness in adapting itself 

 to the most varied conditions of existence. 



