VII 



THE LEAF 



LEAVES are uncountable in numbers, shapes and 

 forms, but they easily group themselves into three 

 general forms like a Blade of Grass, one of the Oak 

 Tree type, and Needle-shaped like the pine. En- 

 vironment has altered their size and form into mil- 

 lions of shapes and sizes. The fierce heat of the sun 

 in the desert has decreased their size and often made 

 them grow with an edge to the sun during the day- 

 time and in the tropics they are large and in the 

 dense jungles they strive to reach the sun in every 

 way, while in our temperate zones they are apt to 

 grow in mosaic, giving all the surface possible to the 

 sun. 



To us, leaves are the commonest things possible; 

 so used are we to them we pass them by without a 

 glance a field of grain, a beautiful tree, a rose bush 

 we even examine the wheat, or estimate the lum- 

 ber in the tree we see the rose and almost never the 

 leaf, and so the most wonderful thing of all, on 

 which our lives depend, we seldom notice. And as 

 the plant could not exist without them or some part 

 that takes their place, like the outer surface of the 



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