. Botany for beginners: an introduction to Mrs. Lincoln's Lectures on botany. Plants. Ch. VII. | STEM3. 43. 159. 156. Here is a mushroom, )r Toad- stool, with the cap, (Fig. 24, a) elevated by its stem or stipe (e). 157. Herbaceous stems usually die every year; in some cases, when the root lives more than one year, the stem is an- nual, as in the Tulip. 158. Woody stems are composed of tough fibres, as the oak, currant-bush, &c. Plants with woody stems are generally much longer lived than herbaceous plants. Pithy stems, like the elder, are in their centre composed of a soft substance, call
. Botany for beginners: an introduction to Mrs. Lincoln's Lectures on botany. Plants. Ch. VII. | STEM3. 43. 159. 156. Here is a mushroom, )r Toad- stool, with the cap, (Fig. 24, a) elevated by its stem or stipe (e). 157. Herbaceous stems usually die every year; in some cases, when the root lives more than one year, the stem is an- nual, as in the Tulip. 158. Woody stems are composed of tough fibres, as the oak, currant-bush, &c. Plants with woody stems are generally much longer lived than herbaceous plants. Pithy stems, like the elder, are in their centre composed of a soft substance, called medulla, or marrow. Some stems are solid, as the Box; hollow, as the Onion; and corky, as the Cork tree. 160. The stem is either simple, or divided into branches. The divisions of the main stem are called branches ; the divi- sions of the branches are called branchlets, or boughs. 161. Branches sometimes grow without any regular order; sometimes they are opposite ; sometimes alternate ; and some- times, as in certain species of the pine, they form a series of rings around the trunk. Some branches are erect, as in the pop- lar ; others are pendant, as in the willow; some, as in the oak, form nearly a right angle with the trunk. 162. A remarkable phenomenon is described by travellers as being exhibited by the stems of the Banyan tree of India, called the Ficus Indicus; these stems throw out fibres, which de- scend and take root in the earth. In process of time, the stems become large trees; aDd thus from one primitive root, is formed a little forest. The tree is called by various names; as the In- dian-God-tree, the arched-Fig-tree, &c. The Hindoos plant it near their temples, and in many cases the tree itself serves them for a temple. Milton speaks of this tree as the one from which Adam and Eve obtained leaves to form themselves garments; he says: 156. "What is the stem of the mushroom called7? 157. What are herbaceous stems composed of'! 158. What are woody stems 1
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