STEMS 



81 



or the rattan of Indian jungles, reach a length of many 

 hundred feet. On the other hand, in such "stemless" 

 plants as the primrose and the dandelion, the stem may be 

 reduced to a fraction of an inch in length. It may take 



Fig. 51.— Stem of "Smilax" (Myrsip 

 I, scale-like leaves ; cl, oladophyll, or leaf-like branch, growing in tlie axil of the 

 leaf ; ped, flower-stalk, growing in the axil of a leaf. 



on apparently root-like forms, as in many grasses and 

 sedges, or become thickened by underground deposits of 

 starch and other plant-food, as in the iris, the potato, and 

 the crocus. Condensed forms of stem may exist aboye 

 ground, or, on the other hand, branches may be flat and 



