Stereom

Stereom, the collective name for all the tissue, whether sclerenchyma or collenchyma, which serves as mechanically supporting tissue to the various parts of plants. Collenchyma often serves this purpose in leaf-stalks and herbaceous stems. As illustrating the varied disposition of the stereom, mention may be made of the variously scattered strands of sclerenchyma in the ground-tissue of fern-stems; of the circle of numerous crescentic strands in the cortex of Arum maculatum; of the continuous pericyclic ring in Allium vineale (the crow garlic); or the hypodermal and conjunctive strands in the hollow stem of Juncus glaucus, one of the rushes; and of the sheath of conjunctive stereom general in monocotyledonous stems. [HISTOLOGY, VEGETABLE TISSUES.]