72 



FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 



87. Stemless Plants. — As will be shown later (Chap- 

 ter XXX), plants live subject to a very fierce competition 

 among themselves and exposed to almost constant attacks 

 from animals. 



While plants with long stems find it to their advantage 

 to reach up as far as possible into the sunlight, the cinque- 

 foil, the white clover, 

 the dandelion, some 

 spurges, the knot- 

 grass, and hundi'eds 

 of other kinds of 

 plants have found 

 safety in hugging 

 the ground. 



Any plant which 

 can grow in safety 

 under the very feet 

 of grazing animals 

 will be especially 

 likely to make its 

 way in the world, 

 since there are many 

 places where it can 

 flourish while ordi- 

 nary plants would be destroyed. The bitter, stemless 

 dandelion, which is almost uneatable for most animals, 



1 



unless cooked, which lies too near the earth to be fed 

 upon by grazing animals, and which bears being trodden 

 on with impunity, is a type of a large class of hardy weeds. 

 The so-called stemless plants, like the dandelion (Fig. 38), 

 and some violets, are not really stemless at all, but send 



Fig. 38. — The Dandelion ; aso-ealled 

 stemless Plant. 



