The elements of botany for The elements of botany for beginners and for schools elementsofbotany00grayuoft Year: [1887] SECTION 6.] STEMS. 43 they grow; from their consisting of a succession of joints; and from the leaves which they bear on each node, in the form of small scales, just like the lowest ones on the upright stem next the ground. They also pro- duce buds in the axils of these scales, showing the scales to be leaves; whereas real roots bear neither leaves nor axillary buds. Placed as they are in the damp and dark soil, such stems naturally produce roots, just as the creeping stem d
The elements of botany for The elements of botany for beginners and for schools elementsofbotany00grayuoft Year: [1887] SECTION 6.] STEMS. 43 they grow; from their consisting of a succession of joints; and from the leaves which they bear on each node, in the form of small scales, just like the lowest ones on the upright stem next the ground. They also pro- duce buds in the axils of these scales, showing the scales to be leaves; whereas real roots bear neither leaves nor axillary buds. Placed as they are in the damp and dark soil, such stems naturally produce roots, just as the creeping stem does where it lies on the surface of the ground. 105. It is easy to see why plants with these running rootstocks take such rapid and wide possession of the soil, and why they are so hard to get rid of. They are always perennials; the subterranean slioots live over the first winter, if not longer, and are provided with vigorous buds at every joint. Some of these buds grow in spring into upright stems, bearing foliage, to elaborate nourishment, and at length produce blossoms for re. production by seed; while many others, fed by nour- ishment supplied from above, form a new generation of subterranean shoots : and this is repeated over and over in the course of the season or in succeeding years. Meanwhile, as the subterranean shoots in- crease in number, the older ones, connecting the suc- cessive growths, die off year by year, liberating the already rooted side-branches as so many separate plauts; and so on indefi- nitely. Cutting tliese running rootstocks into pieces, therefore, by the hoe or the plough, far from destroying the plant, only accelerates the propaga- tion ; it converts one many-branched plant into a great number of separate individuals. Cutting into pieces only multiplies the pest; for each piece (Fig. 98) is already a plantlet, with its roots and with a bud in the axil of its scale-like leaf (either latent or apparent), and with prepared nourishment enough to develo
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