156 



ORGANOGRAPHY. 



times termed digitipartite, or even digitate, (though improperly so,) 

 by some authors. When the lamina is divided nearly to its base 

 into numerous narrow thread-like divisions, as in the submerged 

 leaves of the Water Crowfoot {fig. 307), the leaf is said to be dis- 



Fig. 307. 



^IS MM, 



Fig. 307. Dissected leaf of the Water Crowfoot {Ranunculus aquatilis). 



sected. When the lateral lobes, &c., of what would be otherwise a 

 palmate leaf are themselves divided into two or more divisions 

 {fig. 308), the leaf is termed pedate, from the resemblance it 

 is supposed to bear to a bird's foot, as in Stinking Hellebore. 

 This kind of leaf is by some botanists described as compound, 

 to which, in many cases at least, it properly belongs. It may be 

 considered as a transitional form between simple and compound 



leaves. 



Fig. 308. 



Fig. 308. Pedate leaf. 



Besides the above modifica- 

 tions of palmately- veined leaves, 

 others also occur, in consequence 

 of the lobes of the lamina 

 becoming themselves divided, 

 either in a pinnately-veined, or 

 palmately-veined manner, and 

 terms are used accordingly, the 

 application of which will be at 

 once evident from what has been 

 already stated. 



3. Apex. — This differs very 

 considerably in the blades of dif- 



ferent leaves. Thus the apex is obtuse or blunt, when it is rounded 

 or forms the segment of a circle {figs. 318 and 320), as in the 

 Primrose ; it is retuse when it is obtuse, with a broad shallow 

 notch m the middle, as in the Ked Whortleberry ( Vaccinium 



