488 SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON STIPULES, 
from the back of the stipules. All these facts point to the con- 
clusion that the object of the stipules is to protect the axillary 
buds, which are well developed even on the young and still growing. 
shoots. 
In the young state the free edge of the stipules below the 
lateral branches is distinctly glandular and serrate. As the ter-- 
minal bud is approached, the sheath and glandular serratures 
are relatively very large, and render material service in pro- 
tecting the terminal bud, while the lateral ones at this stage are 
not yet evident. The lateral tooth, designed to lengthen into the 
branch or filament above mentioned, is short and erect at this 
stage. The leaf is sessile or nearly so, compactly conduplicate, . 
and lies between the stipules with its edges to the axis. 
The stipules appear to be distinctly intrapetiolar even in 
the earliest stages, as far as the connate portion is concerned, 
the free portions being right and left of the lamina. The latter 
is strictly conduplicate at a very early stage, and considerably 
longer than its stipules. 
In Prunus domestica (var. economica), Linn., the stipules of the 
elongated shoots are lanceolate-linear, acuminate, glandular-ciliate, . 
with a lateral slender lobe near the base on the posterior side, 
inserted on the pedestal below the insertion of the leaf, and not 
adnate to the petiole, 5-8°5 mm. long ; the lateral lobe proceeds 
nearly at right angles from the main body of the stipule, curves 
round the stem, and measures 1-3°5 mm. long. The young 
axillary buds are well protected by the base of the petiole and 
the stipules. The lateral Jobes and the glandular-ciliate stipules 
may be compared with those of P. prostrata, Labill., from which 
they differ, however, in not being intrapetiolar nor connate. 
In the bud the stipules assist in protecting those portions of 
the terminal bud where the lamina of the leaf narrows into the 
short petiole ; the lateral lobes are ascending at this stage of their 
growth and relatively short. 
In Rubus australis, Forst., the stipules are minute, sometimes 
wanting, while the leaves are reduced to midribs with linear 
leaflets. 
The stipules are seated on the upper edge of the pedestals, 
small, subulate, almost filiform, elongating as the leaves attain a 
greater size, and sometimes wanting ; they resemble a colourless 
gland in the earlier stages, and ultimately disappear. Like the 
