OUTLINES OF BOTANY. Xl 
Caulocarpic, if, after flowering, the whole or part of the plant lives 
through the winter and produces fresh flowers another season. These in- 
clude Herbaceous perennials, in which the greater part of the plant dies 
after flowering, leaving only a small perennial portion called the Stock or 
Caudex, close to or within the earth ; Undershrubs (suffruticose or suffrutes- 
cent plants, in which the flowering branches, forming a considerable portion 
of the plant) die down after flowering, but leave a more or less prominent 
perennial and woody base ; Shrubs ( frutescent or fruticose plants), in which 
the perennial woody part forms the greater part of the plant, but branches 
near the base, and does not much exceed a man’s height; and Trees 
(arboreous or arborescent plants) when the height is greater and forms a 
woody trunk, scarcely branching from the base. Bushes are low, much 
branched shrubs. 
13. The terms Monocarpic and Caulocarpic are but little used, but the 
other distinctions enumerated above are universally attended to, although 
more useful to the gardener than to the botanist, who cannot always assign 
to them any precise character. Monocarpic plants, which require more 
than two or three years to produce their flowers, will often, under certain 
circumstances, become herbaceous perennials, and are generally confounded 
with them. ‘Truly perennial herbs will often commence flowering the first 
year, and have then all the appearance of annuals. Many tall shrubs and 
trees lose annually their flowering branches like undershrubs. And the 
same botanical species may be an annual or a perennial, an herbaceous per- 
ennial or an undershrub, an undershrub or a shrub, a shrub or tree, accord- 
ing to climate, treatment, or variety. 
14. Plants are usually ¢errestrial, that is, growing on earth; or aquatic, 
2. €. growing in water ; but sometimes they may be found attached by their 
roots to other plants,in which case they are epiphytes when simply growing 
upon other plants without penetrating into their tissue, parasites when their 
roots penetrate into and derive more or less nutriment from the plant to 
which they are attached. 
15. The simplest form of the perfect plant, the annual, consists of— 
(1) The Root, or descending axis, which grows downwards from the 
stem, divides and spreads in the earth or water, and absorbs food for the 
plant through the extremities of its branches, 
(2) The Stem, or ascending axis, which grows upwards from the root, 
branches and bears first one or more leaves in succession, then one or more 
flowers, and finally one or more fruits. It contains the tissues or other 
channels (217) by which the nutriment absorbed by the roots is conveyed 
in the form of sap (192) to the leaves or other points of the surface of the 
plant, to be elaborated or digestet] (218), and afterwards redistributed over 
different parts of the plant for its support and growth. 
(3) The Leaves, usually flat, green, and horizontal, are variously ar- 
ranged on the stem and its branches. They elaborate or digest (218) the 
nutriment brought to them through the stem, absorb carbonic acid gas 
from the air, exhaling the superfluous oxygen, and returning the assimi- 
lated sap to the stem. 
_ (4) The Flowers, usually placed at or towards the extremities of the 
branches. They are destined to form the future seed. When perfect and 
complete they consist:—1st, of a pistil in the centre, consisting of one or 
more carpels, each containing the germ of one or more seeds; 2nd, of one 
or more stamens outside the pistil, whose action is necessary to fertilize the 
