GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS 



31 



ner, after having grown to its full 

 length, strikes root from the tip (it 

 sometimes roots at the joints also, 

 in which case it may merge into a 

 stolon ) , fixing the tip to the ground, 

 then forms a bud at that point, 

 which later develops into a tuft of 

 leaves and so gives rise to a new 

 plant. 



Figure 62. — Runcinate leaf, as 

 in the common dandelion 

 (Leontodon taraxacum) 



Sac: A soft, membranous, pouchlike 

 appendage or part, usually closed ex- 

 cept for a relatively narrow opening, 

 as an anther, or pollen sac. 



Sagittate: Shaped like an arrowhead, 

 with the acutish basal lobes directed 

 downward. (Fig. 63.) 



Figure 63. — S agit- 

 tate leaf, as in but- 

 terbur, or false 

 coltsfoot (Petasites 

 sagittata) 



Salverf orm : A term used to describe a 

 type of gamopetalous corolla with a 

 slender tube and wide, flaring limb, 

 as in a phlox flower. 



Samara: A dry-winged indehiscent 

 fruit, as the fruit of maples, ashes, 

 ailanthus, hoptree, etc. 



Sarcocarp: A fleshy mesocarp, or mid- 

 covering of a fruit, as in a peach or 

 plum ; also, though more loosely, the 

 fleshy portion of any fleshy fruit. 



Saprophyte: A plant which lives on 

 decaying organic matter, such as 

 pinesap (Hypopitys) and Indianpipe 

 (Monotropa), mushrooms, and many 

 other fungi. Such plants are desti- 

 tute of green coloring matter (chlor- 

 ophyll). 



•Scabrous: Rough or harsh to the touch. 



Scale: In botany a plant organ or part 

 more or less reminiscent of the scale 

 of a fish or reptile; specifically: (1) 

 One of the partially overlapping 

 (imbricated) parts of a bulb, as of 

 a lily bulb; (2) a modified leaf 

 forming part of the protective cov- 

 ering of a leaf bud or flower bud ; 

 (3) the bract subtending the peri- 

 gynium in the sedge genus Carex 

 (fig. 54, B) ; (4) a bract of a cone 

 or catkin; and (5) a rudimentary 

 leaf on a rhizome. There is prob- 

 ably a growing tendency in botany 

 to confine, so far as possible, the use 

 of scale to the basal and under- 

 ground portions of the plant and to 

 use bract for analogous parts in the 

 inflorescence. 



Scape: A leafless peduncle, or main 

 flower stalk, arising from the under- 

 ground parts of a plant ; the pedun- 

 cle of an acaulescent or apparently 

 stemless plant. The stalk of common 

 dandelion is a scape. 



Scapose: Bearing a scape (or scapes), 

 or resembling one. 



Scarious: Thin, membranous, dry, and 

 not green. 



Schizocarp: Literally, splitting fruit. 

 A dry compound fruit, as in the 

 mallow family, splitting up at ma- 

 turity into several indehiscent 1- 

 seeded carpels 

 (mericarps) ; the pe- 

 culiar dry twin-fruit 

 of the umbellifer, or 

 parsnip, family 

 (cremocarp) is a 

 form of schizocarp. 

 (Fig. 64.) 



Sclerenchyma: Hard, 

 thick-walled cell tis- 

 sue, as in nut shells, 

 the grit cells of 

 pears, etc. 



Scorpioid: Coiled at the tip, like the 

 tail of a scorpion (said especially of 

 inflorescences). (Fig. 65.) Partly 

 synonymous with circinate. 



Section: A natural division of a taxo- 

 nomic group, especially of a genus 

 and, hence, usually more or less 



Figure 64. — A 

 schizocarp, 

 as in round- 

 leaf mallow, 

 or "cheeses" 

 (Malva ro- 

 tundifolia) 



