CHAP. II. 
STEM. 
65 
of either term is superfluous. This has been already remarked 
with respect to culmus by Link, who very justly inquires 
(Linnaea, ii. 235.) "cur Graminibus caulem denegares et cul- 
mum diceres ? " 
The Runner, fig. 26. (sarmentum of Fuchs. and Linnaeus, 
coulant of the French), is a prostrate filiform stem, forming at 
its extremity roots and a young plant, which itself gives birth 
to new runners, as in the Strawberry. Rightly considered, it 
is a prostrate viviparous scape ; that is to say, a scape which 
produces roots and leaves instead of flowers. It has been 
called Jiagellum by some modern botanists, but that term pro- 
perly applies to the trailing shoots of the vine. 
The Sucker, fig. 28. (surculus), called by the French dragon 
or surgeon, is a branch which proceeds from the neck of a 
plant beneath the surface, and becomes erect as soon as it 
emerges from the earth, immediately producing leaves and 
branches, and subsequently roots from its base, as in Rosa 
spinosissima, and many other plants. Link applies the term 
soholes to xhis form of stem. From this has been distinguished 
by some botanists the Stole (stolo, Lat. ; and jet, French) ; 
which may be considered the reverse of the sucker, it differing 
in proceeding from the stem above the surface of the earth, 
into which it afterwards descends and takes root, as in Aster 
junceus; but there does not appear to be any material distinc- 
tion between them. Willdenow confines the term surculus to 
the creeping stems of Mosses. By the older botanists a sucker 
was always understood by the word stolo, and surculus indi- 
cated a vigorous young shoot without branches. 
The shoots thrown up from the subterranean part of the 
stem of Monocotyledonous plants, as the Pineapple for ex- 
ample (the Adnata, Adnascentia, or App^'ndices of Fuchsius), 
are of the nature of suckers. 
It may be here remarked, that stolo has given rise to the 
name stool, which is applied to the parent plant, whence 
young individuals are propagated by the process of layering, as 
it is technically called by gardeners. The branch laid down 
was termed propago by the older botanists, and the layer was 
called malleolus, which literally signifies a hammer; the name 
F 
