6 STRUCTURE 
are successively developed, and which branch very freely. The 
dense network of fibres thus formed take a remarkably tenacious 
hold of the surface-soil, and in meadows and pastures the roots of 
different species interlace ; the result is a compact turf-sole, which 
can be peeled off entire, as in the operation of paring. A charac- 
teristic feature of grasses is that the branches of the rootstock, 
secondary as well as primary, each terminating in a leafy shoot, all 
originate close to the ground, and are extremely short ; this makes 
the turf short and carpety. Reedlike grasses, on the other hand, 
have the branches of the rootstock elongated and erect. In 
many perennials the 
branches of the root- 
stock persist for an 
indefinite time; in 
others they die off 
annually ; some are 
barren, the others in 
due season produce 
flowering stems; the 
leafy shoots of annuals 
are all fertile; those 
of biennials are barren 
the first year and 
flower the next; the 
rootstock then per- 
ishes. Another feature 
of the branches of the 
rootstock, and one 
which explains their 
remarkable vitality, is 
that the growing point, 
with its rudimentary 
leaves, is not at the 
apex ofthe leafy shoots, 
but near their base, 
within the cavity form- 
a x a ee ee ee ed by the concentric 
. 2.—A young shoot or stolon detached from the 
parent, showing adventitious roots at thenodes, and scale- leaf-sheaths, 50 that 
like leaves. when the turfis grazed 
or trodden, the grow- 
ing points escape injury, and fresh leaves are quickly produced. 
The rootstock of grasses is often stoloniferous, the stolons 
rooting freely at the nodes (fig. 2). It is not always possible to 
draw a sharp distinction between subterranean and surface stolons ; 
the former have acute scales (leafless sheaths) at the nodes, while 
the latter have normally developed leaves. In some species the 
subterranean stolons are only a few inches in length, and when 
they have produced their leafy shoot are hardly distinguishable 
from the ordinary branches of the rootstock. These short stolons 
are mostly emitted in autumn and spring ; they form a uniform 
