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The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top. After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem. Sir W. Raleigh. The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats…

A genus of climbing asclepiadaceous shrubs, of Madagascar, Malaya, etc. They have fleshy or coriaceous opposite leaves, and large white waxy flowers in cymes.

A small shoot, or branch, separated, as by a cutting, from a tree or shrub; also, any stem or branch of a tree, of any size, cut for fuel or timber. Withered sticks to gather, which might serve Against a winter's day. Milton.

Any one of a number of similar complex resins obtained from the bark of several trees and shrubs of the Styrax family. The most common of these is liquid storax, a brown or gray semifluid substance of an agreeable aromatic odor and balsamic taste, sometimes used in perfumery, and in medicine as an expectorant.…

e larva burrows in the crown and kills the plant. -- Strawberry bush (Bot.), an American shrub (Euonymus Americanus), a kind of spindle tree having crimson pods and the seeds covered with a scarlet aril. -- Strawberry crab (Zoöl.), a small European spider crab (Eurynome aspera); -- so called because the back is cover…

A genus of tropical apocynaceous shrubs having singularly twisted flowers. One species (Strophanthus hispidus) is used medicinally as a cardiac sedative and stimulant.

A genus of tropical trees and shrubs of the order Loganiaceæ. See Nux vomica.

e earth when the stem is cut down; -- applied especially to the stump of a small tree, or shrub. Stubs sharp and hideous to behold. Chaucer. And prickly stubs instead of trees are found. Dryden.

A genus of shrubs and trees, mostly American or Asiatic, abounding in resinous and aromatic substances. Styrax officinalis yields storax, and S. Benzoin yields benzoin.

Any plant of the genus Rhus, shrubs or small trees with usually compound leaves and clusters of small flowers. Some of the species are used in tanning, some in dyeing, and some in medicine. One, the Japanese Rhus vernicifera, yields the celebrated Japan varnish, or lacquer.

itute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed. The sunken glen whose sunless shrubs must weep. Byron.

A climbing shrub (Berchemia volubilus) of the Southern United States, having a tough and pliable stem.

aces of the hern. Tennyson. A swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, and mosses. Farming Encyc. (E. Edwards, Words). Swamp blackbird. (Zoöl.) See Redwing (b). -- Swamp cabbage (Bot.), skunk cabbage. -- Swamp deer (Zoöl.), an Asiatic deer (Ruc…

Having a sweet scent or smell; fragrant. Sweet-scented shrub (Bot.), a shrub of the genus Calycanthus, the flowers of which, when crushed, have a fragrance resembling that of strawberries.

A shrub or tree supposed to be the tamarisk, or perhaps some kind of heath. [Obs.] He shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come. Jer. xvii. 6 (Douay version).

Any shrub or tree of the genus Tamarix, the species of which are European and Asiatic. They have minute scalelike leaves, and small flowers in spikes. An Arabian species (T. mannifera) is the source of one kind of manna. Tamarisk salt tree, an East Indian tree (Tamarix orientalis) which produces an incrustation of salt…

The prepared leaves of a shrub, or small tree (Thea, or Camellia, Chinensis). The shrub is a native of China, but has been introduced to some extent into some other countries.

A genus of leguminous shrubby plants and herbs, mostly found in tropical countries, a few herbaceous species being North American. The foliage is often ashy-pubescent, whence the name.

A wood or a collection of trees, shrubs, etc., closely set; as, a ram caught in a thicket. Gen. xxii. 13.

Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Cratægus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn.