The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For SchoolsGray, Asa
Science
The Elements of Botany, For Beginners and For Schools
Gray, Asa
Plants
_Climbing_ or _Scandent_, ascending by clinging to other objects for
support, whether by _tendrils_, as do the Pea, Grape-Vine, and
Passion-flower and Virginia Creeper (Fig. 92, 93); by their twisting
leaf-stalks, as the Virgin's Bower; or by rootlets, like the Ivy, Poison
Ivy, and Trumpet Creeper.
_Twining_ or _Voluble_, when coiling spirally around other stems or
supports; like the Morning-Glory (Fig. 90) and the Hop.
[Illustration: Fig. 90. Twining or voluble stem of Morning-Glory.]
91. Certain kinds of stems or branches, appropriated to special uses,
have received distinct substantive names; such as the following:
92. =A Culm=, or straw-stem, such as that of Grasses and Sedges.
93. =A Caudex= is the old name for such a peculiar trunk as a Palm-stem;
it is also used for an upright and thick rootstock.
94. =A Sucker= is a branch rising from stems under ground. Such are
produced abundantly by the Rose, Raspberry, and other plants said to
multiply "by the root." If we uncover them, we see at once the great
difference between these subterranean branches and real roots. They are
only creeping branches under ground. Remarking how the upright shoots
from these branches become separate plants, simply by the dying off of
the connecting under-ground stems, the gardener expedites the result by
cutting them through with his spade. That is, he propagates the plant
"by division."
95. =A Stolon= is a branch from above ground, which reclines or becomes
prostrate and strikes root (usually from the nodes) wherever it rests on
the soil. Thence it may send up a vigorous shoot, which has roots of its
own, and becomes an independent plant when the connecting part dies, as
it does after a while. The Currant and the Gooseberry naturally multiply
in this way, as well as by suckers (which are the same thing, only the
connecting part is concealed under ground). Stolons must have suggested
the operation of _layering_ by bending down and covering with soil
branches which do not naturally make stolons; and after they have taken
root, as they almost always will, the gardener cuts through the
connecting stem, and so converts a rooting branch into a separate plant.
96. =An Offset= is a short stolon, or sucker, with a crown of leaves at
the end, as in the Houseleek (Fig. 91), which propagates abundantly in
this way.
[Illustration: Fig. 91. Houseleek (Sempervivum), with offsets.]
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