COMPOUND LEAVES. 175 



despite of incidental errors. Perhaps no 

 mind, though ever so intent on the subject, 

 can retain all the possible terms of descrip- 

 tion and their various combinations, for ready 

 use at any given moment. There are few- 

 natural objects to which a variety of terms 

 are not equally applicable in description, so 

 that no two writers would exactly agree in 

 their use. Neither is Nature herself so con- 

 stant as not perpetually to elude our most 

 accurate research. Happy is that naturalist 

 who can seize at a glance what is most cha- 

 racteristic and permanent, and define all that 

 is essential, without trusting to fallacious, 

 though ever so specious, distinctions ! 



9. Folia composita, compound leaves, consist 

 of two or any greater number of foliola, 

 leaflets, connected by a common foot- 

 stalk. 



Folium articulatum, a jointed leaf, is when 

 one leaflet, or pair of leaflets, grows 

 out of the summit of another, with a 

 sort of joint, as in Fagara tragodes, 

 Jacq. Amer. t. 14. 



