Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/157

 Rh less truly so. The term acaulis however must never be too rigidly understood, for logical precision is rarely applicable to natural productions.

Caulis fasciculatus, a clustered stem, is a disease or accident, in which several branches or stems are united longitudinally into a flat broad figure, crowded with leaves or flowers at the extremity. It occurs in the Ash, several species of Daphne, Ranunculus, Antirrhinum, &c. In a kind of Pisum, called the Top-knot Pea, it is a permanent variety propagated by seed.

2. . A Straw or Culm, is the peculiar Stem of the Grasses, Rushes, and plants nearly allied to them. It bears both leaves and flowers, and its nature is more easily understood than defined. Many botanists have thought this term superfluous.

The Culm is occasionally

Enodis, without joints, as in our common Rushes, Juncus conglomeratus, ''Engl. Bot. t. 835, and effusus, t.'' 836;