6 GENERAL MORPHOLOGY 



:m<l function. Those appendages, whatever their form or use, 

 accord with leaves in mode ol' origin, position, ;md arrangement 

 on tin- axis or stem. Their most general and ordinary form is 

 the familiar one of foliage ; hence the name of leaves ha- l>e< -n 

 1>V botanists extendeil iii a generic way from the green expan- 

 sion- which constitute foliage to other forms under which such 

 appendages occur. The proper morphological e\pre--ion is. 

 that the latter are homologous with leaves, or are the Ao//>oA/y"< > 

 of leaves. 1 



13. Leaves are borne upon 'the stern at definite places, which 

 are termed NODES. A node may bear a single leaf or a greater 

 number. When it bears two, they occupy opposite sides of 

 the stem. When three, four, or more, they divide tin- circum- 

 ference of the stem equally, forming a circle, technically a 

 WHORL, or in Latin form a VERTICIL. When only two. the pair 

 evidently answers to the simplest kind of whorl. So that leaves 

 are either single on the nodes, in which case they arc alter- 

 nate, that is, come one after another on the stem : or in whorls 

 (ichorled, verticillate) , in the commoner case of a single pair 

 being called opposite . The bare space between two successive 

 nodes is an INTERNODE. This is longer or shorter, according to 

 the amount of longitudinal growth, which thus spaces the leaves, 

 or whorls of leqves, in most various degrees, either widely when 

 the internodes are elongated, or slightly when they remain very 

 short. The plant, therefore (roots excepted), is made up of a 

 series of similar parts. /'. c. of portions of stem, definitely bearing 

 leaves, each portion developed from the apex of the preceding 

 one. This constitutes a simple-stemmed plant. 



14. Branching is the production of new stems from the older 

 or parent stem. These normally appear in the AXILS of leaves, 

 that is, in the upper angle which the leaf forms with the stem. - 

 from which they grow much as the primary stem grew from the 

 seed. The primary stein, connected with the ground, produco 

 roots which develop downwardly into the soil, from which they 

 draw sustenance. Branches, when developed above ground. 



1 A nmiintm designation for all these appendages bciiiL; desirable. :i 1 



one is 1'imiisheil by tin- (ireek name for leaf, </)uAAor, PiMi.i.i M, plural 

 PIIYI.I.A. Tliis, used \\ilh prefixes, may lie made to designate the kind of 

 loaves in many eases, as, prophylla, c<tt<i/i/ti///(t, hypsophylla. 



Hi-cent German botanists use the word /'//////<;/ in this sense. It is a 

 rather convenient and well-sounding word; but filti/Uoimi is the exact (ireek 

 equivalent of our word foliage, and therefore not very well chosen as a 

 common term for leaves which are not foliage as well as those which are. 

 Nor will this word, like /Jn/l/inn, readily take prefixes, as above, or the adjec- 

 tive form, as it readily does in i>n>/>hijllous, hypsophyttous, gamophyllous, &c. 



