The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . stems, but they bearno foliage, or possess green leaves only at the base, and terminate in are essentially of the nature of flower-stalks or scapes, and are for the mostpart to be regarded as floral-stems. The few flowerless, erect foliage-stemswhich are met with in these frosty districts are all very short, usually closelycrowded together into a carpet, or have the form of numerous erect branchlets;they seldom rise more than a span-high from the ground. The only noticeableerect stems besides the
The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . stems, but they bearno foliage, or possess green leaves only at the base, and terminate in are essentially of the nature of flower-stalks or scapes, and are for the mostpart to be regarded as floral-stems. The few flowerless, erect foliage-stemswhich are met with in these frosty districts are all very short, usually closelycrowded together into a carpet, or have the form of numerous erect branchlets;they seldom rise more than a span-high from the ground. The only noticeableerect stems besides the type of low, woody shrubs are the culm and the her-baceous stem. On passing from elevated regions down into the valley, and fromthe arctic zone southwards, besides these forms, we meet with reeds, high shrubsand trees, and still nearer the equator we ,^63 the erect stems of cactiforin plants,bamboos, and palms. In this connection the terms caudex, culm, stalk, and trunk are used toindicate the forms of erect foliage-stems standing out in the landscape, terms ERECT FOLIAGE 712 ERECT FOLIAGE STEMS. which have arisen in the popular tongue, and of which everyone thinks he knowsthe meaning; these words have also been admitted into scientific terminology,although, when more closely examined, they are seen to be ill-adapted for thenomenclature of erect stems. Thus there are procumbent culms, procumbentcaules, and procumbent tree-trunks, and it is therefore not correct to use theseterms for erect forms only. It has been proposed to designate the erect stem,which may be compared to a post, a standard-stem (stirps palaris), prefixingthe word standard to the names of the various sorts of erect stem. Thenames resulting from this combination would prevent any confusion, but,unfortunately, they are cumbrous and unusual, and on the whole unsuited tothis book. For these reasons the current expressions will be still employed,with, of course, the proviso that in this case they refer onl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1902
