Vill INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 
is structurally a cordate or reniform leaf whose auricles are confluent ; 
just as a perfoliate leaf (35) is the amplexicaul, in a similar condition. 
50. In their consistence, leaves or other flat organs dre, 
Jleshy, when thick and soft; szcculent is generally applied in the 
same sense, but implies the presence of more juice ; 
coriaceous, or leathery, when firm and dry, or very tough ; 
membranous, when thin and not stiff; 
scarious, or scariose, when very thin, more or less transparent, and 
not green, yet rather stiff. 
51. Solid leaves (or stems, fruits, seeds, or other parts of plants not 
flattened) are, 
acerose, or acicular, very slender, like needles ; 
setaceous, bristleform ; capillary, when very slender, like hairs; 
ovoid, when egg-shaped, with the broad end downwards ; obovoid, 
if the broad end be upwards. 
globular, or spherical, round like a ball ; 
conical, cone-shaped, tapering upwards; and obconical, tapering down- 
wards, if in both cases a cross-section shows a circle. 
pyramidal, when tapering upwards, obpyramidal, when tapering 
ee if in both cases a cross-section shows a triangle or 
polyg: 
fusiform, eho broad in the middle and tapering to each end like a 
spindle, and not angular. 
cylindrical, when not perceptibly tapering and not angular. 
terete, cylindrical, with the cross-section circular ; 
moniliform, and torwlose, when terete and constricted at intervals. 
trigonous, rather bluntly 3-angled ; triquetrous, sharply 3-angled. 
flattened, or depressed, when vertically compressed. 
compressed, when laterally flattened ; and obcompressed (a bad term) 
sometimes used in the sense of dorsally compressed. 
meniscoid, shaped like a watch-glass. 
patelliform, saucer-shaped. 
52. The mode in which unexpanded leaves are disposed in the leafbud 
is called their vernation, or prefoliation: it varies considerably, but is 
rarely noticed in descriptive botany. 
§ 6. Stipules. 
53. Stipules are leaf-like or scale-like appendages at the base of the 
leafstalk or on the node of the stem. They are often absent, when the 
leaf is exstipulate ; when present they are generally two, one at each side 
of the petiole, and they sometimes appear to protect the young leaf before 
it is developed. They vary extremely in size and appearance; and are 
either free, 7. e. separate from the petiole, or adnate, 7. e. laterally attached 
wholly or in part to the petiole. They often afford excellent characters — 
in distinguishing plants from each other, and ought always to be closely 
observed. 
54. Stipelle, or secondary stipules, ar esimilar organs, sometimes found 
on compound leaves at the points where the leaflets are inserted. 
§ 7. Bracts. 
55. A Bractea or dract, is either the leaf from the axil of which a flower 
is developed, when this differs in appearance from an ordinary leaf; or 
else it is any reduced leaf situated on the branches of the inflorescence (57) 
below the calyx. 
56. When flower-stalks are branched, and have bracts at their first as 
well as at their second and subsequent ramifications, the former are called 
general, the latter partial bracts, or bracteoles. 'The terms general and 
