28 
THE FLORIST S JOURNAL. 
Aerial , or aboveground stems , are also of various kinds. The 
term stem is usually applied to the ascending axis of annual and 
herbaceous plants and shrubs, whilst the stem of trees is termed 
the trunk; the runner is a slender prostrate stem, forming 
leaves and emitting roots from its extremity, as in the straw¬ 
berry ; it may be rightly regarded as a prostrate viviparous 
scape, that is, a flower-stem, in which the “ germ of extension ” 
becomes developed as leaves instead of blossoms; the sucker is 
a branch proceeding from the neck of a plant, beneath the sur¬ 
face of the soil, becoming such as soon as it emerges from the 
soil, and producing leaves, branches, and roots; the offset is a 
short lateral branch produced in some herbaceous plants, as in 
Sempervivum, and but little differing from the runner; the 
rootstock , or rhizoma , is a thickened rooting stem, which an¬ 
nually produces young branches and leaves ; the vine is a stem 
trailing on the ground without rooting or entangling itself with 
other plants, as in the cucumber; (he pseudo-bulb is an enlarged 
aerial stem, resembling a tuber, but differing in being formed 
above ground, in having a cuticle often extremely hard, and in 
retaining the scars of leaves which it once bore. Besides these 
there are several other modifications of stems to which terms of 
distinction are applied, but which I have not space to notice 
more fully. Some plants are apparently destitute of a stem, and 
such are technically termed “ stemless.” This, as has been pre¬ 
viously remarked, is not strictly correct, as plants cannot exist 
without a stem: in these cases, however, it is extremely short. 
Branches are caused by the development of buds, or gemmce, 
from the stem; and they may therefore be regarded as lateral 
extensions of the axis. The buds from which branches are de¬ 
veloped are formed for the most part at the node, that is, the 
part of the stem from which the leaves arise, and branches 
should, consequently, have a disposition around their axis, 
similar to the leaves themselves. This is not, however, prac¬ 
tically found to be the case, owing to the non-development of 
many of the axillary buds, and also to the occasional develop¬ 
ment of buds from the internodes. Although buds are formed 
at every node in the angles formed between the base of the 
leaves and the stem, yet they are not developed until they are 
influenced by the force of the vital action of the plant; and it is 
from this cause that the irregularity frequently to be observed 
in the distribution of branches proceeds; an instance of this 
