STRUGTUBAL BOTANY 37 



sometimes on the branches of the root, as in White Clover, 

 in SpircBa JiUpendvla (a garden plant), etc. Fascicled 

 roots are also called inaxial roots ; and secondary ones 

 adventitious. Among the several peculiar forms of roots 

 are also some, which wo call coralline root, as that of 

 Corallorhisa. 



II. THE STEM. 



78. The stem is that part of the plant which, origi- 

 nating in the plumule of the embryOj tends upward in its 

 growth into the light and air, to produce, imder their in- 

 fluence, leaves, flowers, and fruit. 



The stem, generally called, with all it bears, the as- 

 cending axis of the plant, produces buds, resembling that 

 from which it proceeded — namely, the pliunule. AH or- 

 gans produced by the stem are merely repetitions of itself. 

 The embryo is a primary stem (called radicle), with one or 

 two^seldom more — leaves (called cotyledons) at its sum- 

 mit, which support a bud. The interstices between the ' 

 successive (alternate, coupled, or whorled) leaves of the stem 

 are merely new representations of the embryo-stem, and 

 called internodes or Joints. The points, where the inter- 

 nodes are united, or, as is sometimes the case, plainly ar- 

 ticulated or jointed, are called nodes (popularly knots or 

 Joints). Since the internodes are repetitions of the stem- 

 part of the radicle (the first internode), the apex of the 

 stem, or of the uppermost internode, is always crowned 

 with a bud. This bud contains the future continuation of 

 the stem in miniature, just as the plumule contained the 

 stem. These remarks may suffice to explain what • the 

 botanists mean, when they say : a hud, is a stem or branch 

 in an ^mdeveloped state. 



