1288 Rural School Leaflet 



nately compound leaf has the leaflets arranged along the main axis, arising 

 from different points. A palmately compound leaf has the leaflets 

 arising from the same point. If this is learned well it will be easy to 

 remember the different types of leaf venation. These will be discussed 

 later in the article. Leaves are considered as compound if the leaflets 

 are distinct. If there seems to be a tendency toward division into 

 leaflets, we say that the leaves are lobed. Here, again, we have two 

 types, pinnately lobed and palmately lobed. A good example of a pin- 

 nately lobed leaf is the dandelion; of a palmately lobed leaf, the common 

 sugar maple. The shapes of different leaves can best be shown by the 

 diagrams. The commoner types of margins also are shown. 



Leaf venation is interesting and important. The simplest type seems 

 to be the parallel-veined type, shown in Fig. 14. Here the veins start 

 at one end and extend along beside one another to the opposite end of 

 the leaf. In case the veins start together and extend in the same direction 

 but do not come together again, as in Fig. 19, the term palmately veined 

 is used. In a large number of leaves, however, there is one main vein 

 called the midrib from which smaller veins branch, as is shown in Fig. 1 7 

 in which case we use the term pinnately veined. Pinnately veined leaves 

 and palmately veined leaves usually have many smaller veins branching 

 in all directions from the larger veins and giving rise to the term netted-veined. 



Editors' Note. — It requires some effort to learn to analyze flowers, 

 but the pleasure and profit that result from the work, fully repay the 

 student. Until a nature lover has scientifically analyzed plants, he cannot 

 realize their remarkable structure. This line of study develops keen 

 accuracy and observation. With each flower studied is renewed the 

 wonder of life. 



A person who is very skillful in anlayzing flowers recently stated that 

 he had never studied botany in a school. He learned the meaning of 

 botanical terms from Gray's Manual of Botany, and, in a few cases, asked 

 the assistance of a high school teacher. By his own efforts he worked 

 out the names of the majority of plants included in the wild flora of 

 Pennsylvania; he analyzed the native trees by means of the key in Apgar's 

 " Trees of Northern United States "; and when we talked with him, he 

 was at work on the ferns, evidently finding great enjoyment in the study. 

 He was looking forward to future work on the mosses, the grasses, and 

 the sedges. 



All natural history study becomes a resource that is wholesome and 

 educational, and that increases a reverence for life. Any teacher who 

 will prepare himself to direct the interests of boys and girls in the com- 

 munity along the lines of plant study may enter a social service that will 

 be fundamental and far-reaching. 



