40 Plants and their Ways in Sotith Africa 



appearance of a small cone. Different combinations of insect 

 and plant give galls of various forms. When they have 

 reached full size (you can tell by last year's galls), you can 

 split some through the centre and view the cause of all the 

 disturbance. 



Disguised Branches. — Some branches are so altered in 

 appearance that it is not at first evident what, they are. In the 



Fig. 45. — Branch thorns of Kei Apple. 



Fig. 46. — Branch thorns of Pomegranate. 



Kei apple and Pomegranate it can be seen that the thorns are 

 branches, because they rise from the axils of 

 leaves. In the Pomegranate the end of a 

 branch becomes a thorn. A leaf on a thorn 

 also tells us that it is a branch. Some 

 branches develop into tendrils. Collect as 

 many tendril-bearing plants as you can find, 

 and tell by their position whether they are 

 branches or leaves or parts of leaves. 



Similarly, by their position we can see 

 that the "leaves" of asparagus are branches. 

 This will be difficult to understand, especially 

 in the broad " leaves " species, until we see 

 that they grow from the axils of small scale 



Fig. 47.— Leaf-like 1^^^^^ 1 

 branches of ^j/rt- icavca. 

 ragus. 



" Asparagus with broad green branches (Phyllodes) i.s often miscalled 

 Smilax, which has green leaves — not scale leaves. 



