XIV OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 



pistil or enable it to ripen its seed; 3rd, of a perianth or floral envelope^ 

 which usually encloses the stamens and pistil when )oung, and expands 

 and exposes them to view when fully formed. This complete perianth is 

 double ; the outer one, called Calyx, is usually more green and leaf-like ; 

 the inner one, called the Corolla, more conspicuous, and variously coloured. 

 It is the perianth, and especially the corolla, as the most showy part, that 

 is generally called the flower iu popular language. 



(5) The Fruit, consisting of the pistil or its lower portion, which per- 

 sists or remains attached to the plant after the remainder of the flower has 

 withered and fallen ofu It enlarges and alters more or less in shape or 

 consistence, becomes a seed-vessel, enclosing the seed until it is ripe, when 

 it either opens to discharge the seed or falls to the ground with the seed. 

 In popular language the term fruit is often limited to such seed-vessels 

 as are or look juicy and eatable. Botanists give that name to all seed- 

 vessels. 



16. The herbaceous perennial resembles the annual during the first year 

 of its growth ; but it also forms (usually towards the close of the season), 

 on its stock (the portion of the stem and root which does not die), one or 

 more buds, either exposed, and then popularly called eyes, or concealed 

 among leaves. These buds, called leaf-buds, to distinguish them from 

 flower-buds or unopened flowers, are future branches as yet undeveloped ; 

 they remain dormant through the winter, and the following spring grow out 

 into new stems bearing leaves and flowers like those of the preceding year, 

 whilst the lower part of the stock emits fresh roots to replace those w T hich 

 had perished at the same time as the stems. 



17. Shrubs and trees form similar leaf-buds either at the extremity of 

 their branches, or along the branches of the year. In the latter case these 

 buds are usually axillary, that is, they appear in the axil of each leaf, i.e, 

 in the angle formed by the leaf and the branch. When they appear at any 

 other part of the plant they are called adventitious. If these buds by pro- 

 ducing roots (19) become distinct plants before separating from the parent, 

 or if adventitious leaf-buds are produced in the place of flowers or seeds, 

 the plant is said to be viviparous or proliferous. 



§ 2. The Root. 



18. Sioots ordinarily produce neither buds, leaves, nor flowers. Their 

 branches, called fibres, when slender and long, proceed irregularly from any 

 part of their surface. 



19. Although roots proceed usually from the base of the stem or stock, 

 they may also be produced from the base of any bud, especially if the bud 

 lies along the ground, or is otherwise placed bv nature or art in circum- 

 stances favourable for their development, or indeed occasionally from almost 

 any part of the plant. They are then often distinguished as adventitious, 

 but this term is by some applied to all roots which are not in prolongation 

 of the original radicle. 



20. Roots are 



fibrous, when they consist chiefly of slender fibres. 



tuberous, when either the main root or its branches are thickened into 

 one or more short fleshy or woody masses called tubers (25). 



taproots, when the main root descends perpendicularly into the earth, 

 emitting only very small fibrous branches. 



21. The stock of an herbaceous perennial, or the lower part of the stern 



