COMPOUND LEAVES* 173 



rentiers the works of Linnaeus so luminous in 

 despite of incidental errors. Perhaps no 

 mind, though ever so intent on the subject, 

 can retain all the possible terms of descri|)- 

 tion and their various -combinations, for ready 

 use at any given moment. There are few 

 natural objects to m hich a variety of terms 

 are not equally applicable in description, so 

 that no two writers would exactly ac-ree 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 fol'wla, 



leaflets, connected by a common footstalk. 



Folium art kulat urn, f. 104, a jointed leaf, 



is when one leadet, or pair of leaflets, 



grows out of the summit of another, with 



a sort of joint, as in Fagara tragod^s^ 



Jacq» Am.ci\ t. 14. 



