THE LEAK 23 



Scapes are always herbaceous, and are cither simple, or bearing 

 one flower only, as in the primrose ; or divided and many-flowered, 

 as in the cowslip. The snow-drop, the daisy, the lily, the hyacinth, 

 the daffodil and the narcissus, are all furnished with scape stems. 



7. The frond is that species of stem, in which the 

 stem, leaf and fructification are united; or in other 

 words, the flowers and fruit are produced from the 

 leaf itself. 



The frond is more especially connected vrith the fern tribe. It is 

 also applied to the lichen tribe, and others in which the whole plant 

 is either a crustaceons or leafy substance, from which the fructifica- 

 tion immediately proceeds. ( F. 33.) 



\ 8. The word stipe, is used to express the stem of 

 pialms, ferns, fuci and fungi. They are generally cylin- 

 drical, but sometimes swollen in the middle, and bear a 

 frond, or a peculiar foliage at their summit. 



The stipe, then, is the base or foot-stalk of the/ronrf, and though 

 it m ay in many ferns and fungi, be considered as a true stem, yet in 

 the palm it is only secondary, and the lofty stem which bears the 

 frondose top of those majestic vegetables to the clouds, is nothing 

 more than a congeries of the bases of former fronds, and those which 

 are constantly pushing out from the summit ; so that notwithstanding 

 the groat height and appellation of palm-trees, they are very dif- 

 ferent ill structure and mode of growth, from trees properly so called. 



The mushroom is perhaps the most easy practical illustration we can 

 give you of the stipe ; for that part which is represented by the letter 

 a, in the 3 5th figure, is its stem or stype, and that by the letters b b, 

 its peculiar foliage or frond. 



1. The 1 eaf is usually the temporary part of the plant ; 

 generally of a thin and flat substance of a green colour, 



