STEMS AKD THEIE APPEKDAGES. 69 



The appendages of steins are exceedingly numerous 

 and of diversified form and structure, and all are of 

 value, and of more or less importance in aiding us to 

 distinguish plants of the different classes, orders, genera, 

 species, and even the natural and cultivated varieties 5 

 but the space at my command will only admit of a 

 brief notice of the fevr with which the propagator must 

 necessarily become the most familiar. I will say, how- 

 ever, that he who aims to know plants must not think 

 that even the minutest character is unimportant, for 

 size is only a comparative term at best, and a thing may 

 be great among the small as well as among the large. 

 The most prominent appendages of stems are prickles, 

 as in the Nettle ; spines, as found on the canes of the 

 Black Easpberrj, the Blackberry and the Eoses ; thorns, 

 as on the Hawthorn, the Honey Locust, and many of the 

 larger cactuses ; tendrils, as on the Clematis, Grape, 

 and many other climbing plants. Leaves, flowers, fruits 

 or seeds are other appendages. Prickles, spines and 

 thorns probably take an active part in the general assim- 

 ilation of nutrients of the plant, at least while they are 

 young and growing, but what other purpose they serve 

 in vegetable economy is not readily determined, further 

 than they are distinguishing characteristics among the 

 vast numbers which Nature employs in her always dif- 

 ferent and ever changing productions. To say that 

 plants are armed with spines or thorns as a protection, 

 as is often asserted, has no foundation in fact, but it is a 

 purely sentimental idea, for the supposed protecting 

 organs do not protect against any natural enemy, for the 

 species most fully armed with the strongest spines and 

 thorns often perish from the attacks of some .thin- 

 skinned and wholly defenseless little insect, while the 

 giant thorns of some trees often become the safe and 

 rather luxurious home of certain species of the ant. 

 There are other appendages of stems which may not 



