12 A FLORA OF MANILA 
tissues as not to be evident to the naked eye; in such cases the nerves 
are spoken of as obsolete or wanting. 
As to the outlines of leaves, various terms have been selected to describe 
certain shapes. These terms are also used for any other flat parts of the 
plant, such as petals, sepals, some fruits, seeds, etc. Leaves are linear ~ 
when they are narrow and several times longer than wide and of about the 
same width throughout, their margins nearly parallel; lanceolate when 
three or more times as long as wide, widest below and taper upward or 
both upward and downward, shaped more or less like a lance; oblan- 
ceolate, the reverse of lanceolate, broadest above the middle and tapering 
downward; oblong when two or three times as long as broad and not con- 
spicuously narrowed, the sides nearly parallel; elliptic when shaped like 
an ellipse, equally rounded at both ends; ovate when twice or less as lone 
as broad, widest below the middle and more or less narrowed upward; 
obovate, the reverse of ovate, widest above the middle and tapering down- 
ward; oval, somewhat like elliptic, but the breadth distinctly more than one 
half the length; orbicular when circular in outline; spatulate when narrow, 
more or less rounded above, and tapering from near the apex to the base; 
cuneate or wedged-shaped when broad above, tapering by nearly straight 
lines to the base; falcate when more or less curved; flabellate or fan- 
shaped when broad and rounded at the top, narrowed below like a fan; 
reniform when broader than long, shaped somewhat like a kidney. Various 
combinations like oblong-ovate, oblong-lanceolate, etc., are self explanatory, 
and are used to describe intermediate forms. 
As to the tip or apex of the leaf, it may be rounded when broad ar 
semicircular in outline; truncate, that is cut off square or nearly so; acute 
when ending in an acute angle with straight sides; acuminate when pointed, 
but the tapering lines incurved; obtuse when blunt or narrowly rounded; 
retuse when slightly notched at the apex; emarginate, more prominently 
notched; obcordate, that is inversely heart-shaped, an obovate leaf deeply 
notched at the apex; cuspidate, tipped with a sharp point; mucronate 
when abruptly tipped by a small short point; and aristate when the 
mucronate point is extended into a longer and more or less bristle-like 
appendage. Some of these terms are also applicable to the base of the 
leaf, and most or all of them to various other organs of the plant. 
As to the base of the leaf, it may be cordate or heart-shaped when the 
outline of its rounded base is turned in forming a sinus where the petiole 
is attached; awricled, that is eared, having a pair of small projections 
at the base; sagittate or arrow-shaped where the ears or lobes are acute 
and turned downwards; and hastate where the basal lobes are acute and 
point outwards. A leaf is peltate or shield-shaped when the petiole is 
attached to the lower surface, the ribs or veins of the leaf radiating from 
the point of insertion. 
Leaves are simple when the blade is of a single piece, without regard 
to how much it may be cut up, and compound when the blade consists of 
two or more separate parts on a common petiole. In compound leaves 
the individual parts of the leaf-blade are called leaflets and their stalks 
the petiolules; the extension of the petiole above the lowest leaflets in 
many compound leaves is called the rachis. Some compound leaves have 
their leaflets or petiolules subtended by variously shaped, usually small, 
appendages corresponding to the stipules of the leaves; these appendages 
are called stipels; leaflets are called stipellate when these organs are 
