THEIR FORMS AND FUNCTIONS. 513 
so that the edges touch those of the opposite leaf, and little 
except the midribs and tendrils of the outer ones are exposed. 
The axillary buds are covered and protected by a pair of ovate, 
concave, acuminate leaves reduced to the condition of scales. 
Their succeeding leaves are perfect and arranged like those of 
the terminal bud. 
ILLECEBRACER. 
In Paronychia serpyllifolia, DC., the leaves are small, oblong- 
lanceolate or often subelliptic, tapering into a short petiole, 
ciliate at the edges, and showing a midrib on the under surface 
with two faint lateral nerves, evergreen, opposite, stipulate. 
The stems being prostrate, all the leaves are turned to the upper 
side. The stipules are large, lanceolate, acuminate, scarious, 
shining, interpetiolar, overlapping one another considerably at 
the base, and consisting of greatly elongated slender cells, lying 
parallel with one another longitudinally. The stipules of one 
pair of leaves protect the next younger pair, and those of the 
uppermost fully expanded pair equal the next younger pair 
(forming the winter-bud) in length. The second younger pair 
of the bud-leaves are very much shorter than the stipules of the 
first or outer pair. The stipules always attain their full length 
before the leaves to which they belong. The stipules therefore 
obviously serve for the protection of the young leaves. They 
protect not only those of the terminal buds but also the axillary 
buds, which are very numerous—the prostrate or creeping stems 
being very much branched. 
Corrigiola littoralis, Linn., has the leaves alternate or the first 
pair opposite, linear-lanceolate, narrowed to the very base. The 
stipules are subulate or half-sagittate, with a small auricle at 
the base on the posterior side, thin, colourless, membranous, 
and erect.. The internodes of the young shoots are very little 
elongated, so that the leaves are crowded together as well as the 
stipules, which at this stage assist in protecting the terminal 
bud. Axillary buds are freely produced, and in their earlier 
stages are protected by the erect stipules. 
In Scleranthus annuus, Linn., the subulate, acute, somewhat 
pungent leaves are opposite, but not strictly decussate, as each 
pair is inserted a little farther round the stem than the second 
pair below, not vertically above it. The alternate pairs there- 
fore assume a spiral arrangement, just as in the Screw Pine 
