The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey.

  • William H. Harvey
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    26. Suckers are j'oung plants formed at the end of creeping, \mdcrground rootstocks. 27. Scto)7s, runners, and stolons, or stoles, are names given to young plants foimed at the end, or at the nodes (28) of branches or stocks, creeping wholly or paidially above-ground, and sometimes to the creeping stocks themselves. 28. A node is a definite point on the stem or on a branch, at which one or more leaves are gpven off, and an internode is the portion of a stem com- prised between two nodes. The nodes are pervious when the pith passes continuously through them, and closed or impervious when it is intomipted by pai’titions, as in grasses, etc. 29. Leaf buds ara small conical bodies, usually covered with scales, and found in the axils (33) of leaves of the pre\dous season or of earlier growth ; \yhen occuning in other positions, as they sometimes do, they are con- sidered adventitious or irrogidar. They contain the germs of future branches. 30. Branches (or loaves) arc, opposite, when two proceed from the same node at opposite sides of the stem; whorled or verticil late, when several ])roccod from the same node, arranged rcgulaid)’^, like the spokes of a wheel, round the stem. geminate, or in pairs, when two proceed from tho same node, at the same side of tho stem. ternate, in threes, when three spring from one point. Jaseiclcd, when several si)ring from the same or nearly the samo apparent point. alternate, Avhon one only proceeds from each node, one on one side, and tho next above or below on the opposite side of tho stem. decussate, when opposite, but each pair jjlacod at right angles to tho one next above or below it; distichous, when in two ranks ; UHstichous, in three, etc. scattered, when ])laccd iiTogularly round tho stem; but this is often confounded with alternate. sccund, when all start from or turn towards one side of the stem, like tho teeth of a rake. 31. Branches are, forked, when they divide at the end into two or more equal branches; dichotomous, when each 2-pronged fork is again divided, and this mode of dirision several times repeated ; trichotomous, when tho forks are 3-prongcd, and this repeated ; umbellate, when divided at tho apex into several branches, and tho central one not larger than the rest. 32. Tho straw-like stems of grasses and some other endogens are often called culms. ^ 5. The Leaves. 33. Leaves are expansions which issue laterally from tho stem and branches, and usually bear a leafbud (29) in their axil, i.e. in the angle formed by the leaf and the branch. 34. An ordinary leaf consists of an expanded, usually flat blade or lamina, joined to the stem by a footstalk or petiole. The extremity of the lamina next the stem is the base, the opposite extremity the apex, and a line separating the upper and under surfaces, the margin. 36. Leaves are, sessile, when the blade rests on the stem without the intervention of a petiole.