. The American botanist and florist: including lessons in the structure, life, and growth of plants; together with a simple analytical flora, descriptive of the native and cultivated plants growing in the Atlantic division of the American union. Botany; Botany. FORMS OF SCALE-STEMS. 79 23-2. Repent steins of this kind are not, liowever, witliout tlieir use. Tliey frequently abound in loose, sandy soil, which they serve to bind and secure against the inroads of the water and even the sea itself. Holland is said to owe its very existence to the repent stems of such plants as the Mat-grass (Arund
. The American botanist and florist: including lessons in the structure, life, and growth of plants; together with a simple analytical flora, descriptive of the native and cultivated plants growing in the Atlantic division of the American union. Botany; Botany. FORMS OF SCALE-STEMS. 79 23-2. Repent steins of this kind are not, liowever, witliout tlieir use. Tliey frequently abound in loose, sandy soil, which they serve to bind and secure against the inroads of the water and even the sea itself. Holland is said to owe its very existence to the repent stems of such plants as the Mat-grass (Arundo arenaria), Carex arenarins, and Elymus arunarius, which overrun the artificial dykes upon its shores, and by their innumerable roots and creepers apparentlv bind the loose sand into a firm barrier against the washing of the waves. So the turf^ chiefly composed of repent Grass-stems, forms the only secu- rity of our own sandy or clayey hills against the washing rains. 233. The kiiizome or koot-stock diiiers from the creeper only ill being shorter and thicker, having its internodes but par- tially developed. It is a prostrate, fleshy, rooting stem, either "wholly or partially subterranean, often scaly with the bases of undeveloped leaves, or marked with the scars of former leaves, and yearly producing new shoots and roots. Such is the fleshy, horizontal portion of the Blood-root, Sweet-flag, Water-lily, and Bramble (the latter hardly dilferent from the creeper). The iirowth of the rhizome is instructive, marking its peculiar character. Each joint marks the growth of a year. In Spring, the terminal bud unfolds into leaves and llowers, to perish in Autumn—a new bud to open the follov\'ing Spring, and a new inter- node, with its roots, to abide several years. The number of joints indicates, not the age of the plant, but the destined age of each internode. Thus if there are three joints, we inlor that they are triennial, perishing after the third season, while the plan
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1870
