390 JjM!SSO]fS WITH PLANTS 



These are diffuse and low growers, with no elevated 

 head. They are bushes or shrubs. 



496. The mayflower or epigaea (Pig. 409) lies 

 upon the ground from the first, making no effort 

 to grow upright. It is prostrate or procumbent. 

 There are, then, two general types of stature, — the 

 vertical and the horizontal ; but there is every inter- 

 mediate gradation. 



496a. The general appearance of a plant is called its habit. 

 It may have a prostrate or upright habit, a weak or strong habit, 

 a graceful or rugged habit, and the like. 



497. The pupil should determine upon what 

 part of a plant the fruit is borne in raspberries 

 and blackberries. He will find that the stems die, 

 or at least become very weak, and therefore prac- 

 tically useless, as soon as they have borne ; and he 

 will see that these stems are only two seasons old. 

 For example, sprouts or shoots spring from the root, 

 in 1896 ; they bear in 1897. Other shoots arise in 

 1897 ; they bear in 1898. The horticulturist knows* 

 such shoots — which arise directly from the root, 

 and bear but one or two crops before becoming 

 weak, — as canes. 



497a. The raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, are true cane- 

 fruits, but the term is also applied to currants and gooseberries, in 

 which the canes bear several years, although the most profitable 

 crops are obtained the first two or three. The ripened shoots of 

 the grape are also called canes. The pupil will now understand 

 the philosophy of cutting out the canes in raspberry patches. 



