382 NATURAL SCIENCE. dec, 



esteemed contemporary votes in favour of the statue, remarking that 

 there are scholarships enough already. We do not wish to disagree 

 with so respected a journal, but in favour of the scholarship we, in our 

 turn, might say, " There are statues enough already." 



Stipules. 



An addition to the literature of stipules — the well-known basal 

 appendages of the leaf-stalk — will be found in the last number of the 

 Linnean Society's Journal (vol. xxx., pp. 463-532), where Sir John 

 Lubbock describes the form and discusses the function of these 

 structures in a large number of plants. Young leaves, still enclosed 

 in the bud, are extremely susceptible to cold and drought, and also 

 afford tempting food to insects and other animals. It is, therefore, 

 not surprising to find that the most general purpose served by the 

 stipules is bud-protection. In many cases they fall after the unfolding 

 of the leaf — as in the lime — where the pinky-white scales litter the 

 ground beneath the tree. Often they are persistent, and supply one 

 of the most constant characteristics of a whole family, as in the 

 Rubiacese, in the British representatives of which it is difficult to^ 

 distinguish stipules and leaves. Sir John has a few interesting cases 

 in this connection. In a species of pepper [Piper longum) the pair of 

 stipules of the youngest unfolded leaf covers the terminal bud with a 

 sort of nightcap, the stalk of the same leaf appearing continuous 

 with the main axis. A similar arrangement occurs in the magnolias. 

 In Alstonia scholaris, belonging to the Apocynaceae, the leaves form a 

 whorl at the tip of each season's growth, while a triangular outgrowth 

 or ligule from the base of the upper surface of each converges towards 

 one centre, thus covering all but the extreme apex of the terminal 

 bud. This ligule is doubtless a stipular structure. In Biiddleia 

 (Lcganiaceae), on the contrary, the deeply-channelled petioles with 

 their dilated base protect the axillary buds so well that stipules are 

 dispensed with in the early stages of the leaves, and develop only 

 as these gradually attain their full size. An exstipulate rose is. 

 an anomaly : such, however, is Rosa simplicifolia, where the petiole 

 has only a thin margin continuous with the blade and dilated at the 

 base to protect the bud in its axil. It is stated, on the authority of 

 Dr. Masters, that the vascular bundle intended for the stipules still 

 exists, " indicating that they existed formerly." 



In Nymphcea tuberosa, an ally of our water-lily, the stipules are 

 2-3^ centimetres long, and with the decaying remains of old leaves, 

 form a covering to the dense, compact, submerged, winter bud, protect- 

 ing the tender young leaves " from fishes and other aquatic animals 

 that feed on vegetation." 



Stipules of two or more kinds are sometimes found in the same 

 plant. In Catha ftf/z/zs (Celastrineae), besides the true, narrow-pointed; 

 ciliate, erect stipules, there is a second set consisting of " coarse. 



