§ 3. The Stock.

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22. The Stock of a herbaceous perennial, in its most complete state, includes a small portion of the summits of the previous year's roots, as well as the base of the previous year's stems. Such stocks will increase yearly so as at length to form dense tufts. They will often preserve through the winter a few leaves, amongst which are placed the buds, which grow out into stems the following year, whilst the under side of the stock emits new roots from or amongst the remains of the old ones. These perennial stocks only differ from the permanent base of an undershrub in the shortness of the perennial part of the stems and in the texture, usually less woody.

23. In some perennials, however, the stock consists merely of a branch, which proceeds in autumn from the base of the stem either aboveground or underground, and produces one or more buds. This branch, or a portion of it, alone survives the winter. In the following year its buds produce the new stem and roots, whilst the rest of the plant, even the branch on which these buds were formed, had died away. These annual stocks, called sometimes hybernacula, offsets, or stolons, keep up the communication between the annual stem and root of one year, thus forming altogether a perennial plant.

24. This stock, whether annual or perennial, is often entirely underground or rootlike. This is the rootstock, to which some botanists limit the meaning of the term rhizome. When the stock is entirely root-like, it is popularly called the crown of the root.

25. The term tuber is applied to a short, thick, more or less succulent rootstock or rhizome, as well as to a root of that shape (20), although some botanists propose to restrict its meaning to one or the other. An Orchis tuber, called by some a knob, is an annual tuberous rootstock with one bud at the top. A potato is an annual tuberous rootstock with several buds.

26. A bulb is a stock of a shape approaching to globular, usually rather conical above and flattened underneath, in which the buds or buds are concealed, or nearly so, under scales. These scales are the more or less thickened bases of the decayed leaves of the preceding year, or the undeveloped leaves of the future year, or both. Bulbs are annual or perennial, usually underground or close to the ground, but occasionally buds in the axils of the upper leaves become transformed into bulbs. Bulbs are said to be scaly when their scales are thick and loosely imbricated, tunicated when the scales are thinner, broader, and closely rolled round each other in concentric layers.

27. A corm is a tuberous rootstock, usually annual, shaped like a bulb, but in which the bud or buds are not covered by scales, or of which the scales are very thin and membranous.

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