THE STEM 



^3 



underground stems. The storage of food in seeds, 

 in thick, fleshy roots, and root-like stems are all in- 

 stances of foresight of plants to provide for their future 



Fig^. i8. A Rhizome or Root-stock 



wants. The reservoirs of food contained in such parts 

 of plants form our principal food materials. 



The underground stems take different forms in dif- 

 ferent plants. When they are long and grow more 

 or less horizontally, dying at one end and growing 

 at the other, they are known 



as RHIZOMES or ROOT-STOCKS, 



as in ada or Ginger, haloed 

 ,or Turmeric, shalook {Nym- 

 phcea), padma or Lotus, kala 

 or Plantain, several Grasses 

 and Sedges or mootha-like 

 grasses (fig. i8). Occasion- 

 ally the rhizomes are short, 

 grow more or less vertically, 

 and the top portion rises par- 

 tially out of the ground, as in 



man-kachu {Alocasia). When the underground stem 

 is thick and trunk-like in form, with minute scattered 

 scale leaves and prominent buds, it is known by the 

 name of CORM, as in ol {Amorphophallus) (fig. 19). 

 Thickened and more or less rounded underground 

 stems, like Potato (fig. 20), mootha {Cyperus rotun- 



Fig-. 19. — Corm (c) of Ol {Amor' 

 phophallus campanulatus) 



