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WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, ^s<^ 



Friday, January 21, 1898* 





Sir Frederick Bramwell, Bart. D.C.L. LL.D. F.R.S. Honorary 

 Secretary and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Eight Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart, M.P. D.C.L. LL.D. 



F.R.S. M.n.i. 



^^ Buds and Stipules, 



The lecturer commenced by saying that his attention had been drawn 

 to the subject by a remark of Vaucher's in his ' Histoire Physiologique 

 des Plaiites,' calling attention to the fact that some species of Kock- 

 rose have stipules \Yhile others have none, and suggesting that it 

 would be interesting, if possible, to determine the reason for the 

 difference. Stipules are the small leaflets found at the base of the 

 leaf in many plants. In some they drop early, so that on a cursory 

 examination they might be supposed to be absent, as, for instance, in 

 the Beech or Elm; in others they live as long as the leaves, and in 

 some few cases even survive them. The study of stipules led him 

 to that of buds. 



Every gardener knows to his cost how often the bright promise 

 of spring is ruined by late frosts. All through the winter the young 

 leaves, which commenced in the previous year and are formed in the 

 bud even early in the previous summer, lie snugly enclosed in many 

 warm wraps, covered, moreover, by furry hairs, and often still further 

 protected from insects and browsing quadrupeds by gummy secre- 

 tions. 



A complete leaf may be considered as consisting of four parts, 

 the blade, the leaf-stalk, the stipules and the leaf-base ; or perhaps 

 of two portions : the upper, with its expansion, forming the blade ; 

 and the lower, with two ajipendages, the stipules. Sometimes the 

 stipules are absent, as in Ma23les ; sometimes the leaf-stalk is absent, 

 as in Gentians ; sometimes the blade is absent, and its function is 

 performed by the flattened petiole, as in most of the Australian 

 Acacias ; sometimes the stipules alone are present, as in a very 

 curious Pea, Lathyrus Aphaca. 



He then described a number of different forms of stipules and the 

 construction of buds in a variety of common shrubs and trees. In 

 the Oak the bud has over forty coverings before a normal leaf is 

 reached, and the peculiar form of the leaf-blade is due to the way it is 

 packed in the bud. He showed the leaves and flowers of the coming 



Vol. XV. (No. 92.) 2 p 



