142 WAYSIDE WEEDS. 



These runners carry at their extremities buds or 

 scionsj wMcli rooting, form new plants, and these, 

 iu time, become independent of the parent root by 

 the withering of the connecting runner, a process 

 which does not, as a rule, take place in the true 

 creeping and rooting stem. Again, some stems 

 tend upwards, but are so weak themselves that 

 they must depend on their neighbours for support, 

 such are the twining stems of the honeysuckle, the 

 donvolTulus, the bryony, or the bistort j others of 

 these weak plants do not twine, but climb, as vines, 

 peas, or vetches do by their tendrils ; or as the now 

 well-known canary-creeper and others, by hooking 

 their stems and leaf petioles upon any supporting 

 object. While looking at stem directions, do not, 

 in your searchings, overlook stem forms ; most, 

 perhaps, are round, but not all (Fig. 88). Some, 

 as in the hemlock-like umbelhfers, are furrowed, 

 others are flattened, as in the flat-stemmed meadow- 

 grass (Fig. 88), many, as in our sweet-smeUing 

 friends the labiates, are square, the wallflower has 

 its stem strongly angled, and the water sedges are 

 many of them so sharply triangled that they will 

 cut your fingers if you are not mindful. Winged 

 stems occur, as in the thistles, where the leaves are 

 decurrent or prolonged down the stems. The 

 surface covering of stems is not less varied than 

 their forms, the usual green has frequent spots 

 and stainings. It carries hairs of all sorts and 



