FOLIATION AND RAMIFICATION OF BUDDLEIA AURICULATA. 201 
Note on the Foliation and Ramicatod of Buddleia auriculata. 
By Dr. Maxwett T. Masts, F.R.S., F.L.S. 
[Read December 1, 1881.] 
Tuz order Loganiace&, to which the genus Buddleia is now referred 
(Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. ii. p. 793), is characterized, among 
other things, by the presence of opposite or rarely verticillate leaves 
connected at the base by a narrow transverse line or membrane, 
or provided at the base with stipule-like auricles, an intrapetiolar 
sheath, or even with very small true stipules. Such is the state- 
ment made in the work above cited. Le Maout and Decaisne, 
‘ Traité général de Botanique, English edition by Hooker, p. 555, 
describe the leaves of Loganiacee as follows :—“ Leaves oppo- 
site, stipulate, or exstipulate when the dilated and connate bases 
of the petioles embrace the stem, with a short, sometimes obso- 
lete border; stipules adnate on both sides to the petioles, or free 
and interpetiolar, or cohering in a sheath, or axillary, dorsally 
adnate to the base of the petiole.” Lindley, ‘ Vegetable King- 
dom,' p. 602, speaks of the stipules in this order as adhering to 
the leaf-stalks, or combined in the form of interpetiolary sheaths. 
Endlicher (Gen. Plant. p. 574) describes the leaves as “oppo- 
sita, petiolata, . . . . petiolis basi, nisi stipule adsint, in marginem 
brevissimum amplexicaulem, interdum fere obsoletum combinatis. 
Stipule variz nunc petiolis utrinque adnate, nunc interpetiolares 
liber: vel in vaginam coalitæ quandoque axillares dorso petioli basi 
adnate.” 
It is not necessary to make further citations. Enough has 
been said to show that, while there is a general agreement of 
opinion as to the appearances presented, the explanation of those 
appearances is sufficiently vague. This vagueness, of course, 
arises from the circumstance that descriptive botanists have been 
more anxious to discover * characters " than they have been to 
ascertain their morphological significance. Considering the enor- 
mous mass of material to be dealt with, and the often very imper- 
fect means at the disposal of the botanist, this state of things is 
not to be wondered at. It is nevertheless essential to a natural 
classification that mere conventional statements, adopted in the 
first instance from motives of expediency, should, as soon as con- 
venient, be replaced by others more in accordance with the actual 
LINN, JOURN.— BOTANY, VOL. XIX. 8 
