BOTANY. 
ed by buds as commodiously as by roots. 
Those of one tree may be engrafted on ttie 
bark of another of the same species, or one 
nearly akin, by which, as is well known, 
valuable varieties are multiplied. Fig. 8. 
It is remarkable that nature should per- 
mit such devastation and waste as is made 
by many insects, whose caterpillars or grubs 
feed on the buds of trees. Several species 
of fir are infested with their appropriate in- 
sects, which, literally speaking, devour their 
vitals, and should seem to be capable in one 
season of destroying a whole forest. Yet 
these are only instruments in the hand of 
Providence, which, like many others, though 
formidable in appearance, are never allowed 
to transgress their due bounds. 
OF THE STEMS AND STALKS OF PLANTS. 
Botanists reckon seven kinds of stems or 
stalks of p'ants. 
1. Caulis, a stem, fig. 9, properly so 
called, bears both leaves and flowers, 
as the trunks and branches of all trees and 
shrubs, as well as of many herbaceous plants 
besides.- By its means the organs of plants 
are raised to a commodious height above 
the ground, and presented in various direc- 
tions to the atmosphere and light. In ger- 
mination, it always takes a contr ary direc- 
tion to the l oot. As it advances in growth, 
it is either able to support itself, or twines 
round, or adheres to other bodies. Some 
stems creep on the ground, and take root 
here and there, by which the plant is in- 
creased. The stem is either simple, as in 
the lily, or branched as in the generality of 
plants. When regularly and repeatedly 
divided, with a flower springing from each 
division, it is called caulis dichotomus, a 
forked stem. Though generally leafy or 
scaly, a stem may be naked in plants desti- 
tute of leaves altogether, as the creeping 
cereus, and the genus Staphelia^ Climbing 
stems are of several kinds ; as radicans, 
clinging to any other body for support by 
means of fibres which do not imbibe nourish- 
ment ; scandens, climbing by means of spir al 
tendrils like the vine and passion-flower; vo- 
lubilis, twining round any thing that comes 
in its way by its own spiral form, either 
from left to right, according to the appa- 
rent motion of the sun, like the honeysuckle, 
orfrom right to left, like the convolvolus and 
French bean; nor can any ait or force 
make a twining stem turn contrary to its 
natural direction. In the manner of then- 
growth and branching stems are very vari- 
ous, being either straight, irregularly spread- 
ing, or zigzag ; either alternately branched 
or oppositely ; two-ranked, when the brauches 
spread in two horizontal directions, or bra- 
chiate, four-ranked, when they spread in 
four directions, crossing each other alter- 
nately in pairs. Caulis determinate ramosus, 
an abruptly branched stem, belongs parti- 
cularly to the heaths, the rhododendron, &c. 
and is a term invented by Linnasus to ex- 
press their peculiar mode of growth ; each 
of their branches, after terminating in 
flowers, throws out a number of fresh as- 
cending shoots from just below the flower- 
ing part. The Indian fig has a remarkable 
jointed stem, whose ovate portions look like 
leaves ; possibly the scales with which they 
are covered may be equivalent to leaves. 
The shape of a stem is either round or 
two-edged, as in the everlasting pea, or 
with three, four, or more angles. Square 
stems are extremely common, and such ge- 
nerally bear opposite leaves. Several stems 
are winged, the angles being extended into 
leafy borders, as in thistles. 
The surface of the stem is either smooth, 
rough, warty, viscid, bristly, hairy, downy, 
woody, hoary, or glaucous. It is either stri- 
ated with fine parallel lines or more deeply 
furrowed; sometimes it is spotted with a 
purplish hue. 
The inner part of the stem is either solid, 
in which case its centre is occupied with 
pith; or hollow, and lined with a white 
shining membrane, of which the hemlock is 
an example. When the stem is wanting, a 
plant is called acaulis, as is the case with 
the daisy and primrose. The nature of the 
stem agrees in many respects with the cau- 
dex, or body of the root, at least in trees 
and shrubs ; for such are capable of being 
propagated by cuttings of their stem or 
branches, which, when planted, throw out 
roots. This is not the case, however, with 
annual stems. LinnEeus calls the stems of 
trees roots above-ground. It is frequently 
indifferent which end of a cutting is planted 
in the earth ; and the extremity of a branch 
bent down to the ground in most cases rea- 
dily takes root, which circumstances con- 
firm his idea. 
The stem of several plants is subject to 
a disease, whence it becomes as it were 
compound or clustered, forming a broad 
flat figure, crowded witli leaves or flowers 
at the extremity, and sometimes besprinkled 
with them at the sides. We have seen it in 
the ash, holly, broom, nasturtium, wall- 
flower, toad-flax, &c. A kind of pea is fre- 
quently cultivated in Norfolk with red and 
