THE OAK 



another close to the tip, and a little longer and narrower 

 than those lower down on the shoot ; from between these 

 two linear structures the first true green foliage leaf of 

 the oak arises, its short stalk being flanked by them. This 

 first leaf is small, but the tip of 

 the shoot goes on elongating and 

 tnrowing out others and larger 

 ones, until by the end of the 

 summer there are about four to 

 six leaves formed, each with its 

 minute stalk flanked by a pair 

 of tiny linear scales (' stipules,' 

 as they are called) like those 

 referred to above. 



Each of the green leaves 

 arises from a point on the young 

 stem which is a little higher, and 

 more to one side, than that from 

 which the lowermost one springs ; 

 hence a line joining the points 

 of insertion of the successive 

 FIG 4. Germinating leaves describes an open spiral 

 round the shoot axis-i.e. the 



primary shoot, and the s t e m and this of such a kind 



first scales (stipules) on 



the latter. (After Boss- that when the spiral comes to 



the sixth leaf upwards it is ver- 



tically above the first or oldest leaf from which we 

 started, and has passed twice round the stem. 



At the end of this first year, which we may term 



