CHAPTER VIII 



LEAF-BEGINNINGS AND LEAF-FORMS 



"Only leaves? Yet where would any of vis be to-day but for the silent offices of leaves?" 

 Finger-post Essays. 



HAVING- treated at some length in a previous chapter of the internal 

 structure and functions of the leaves of the plants, we may now 

 devote a few pages to their external forms a subject by no means 

 easy to treat in a popular manner. Nevertheless, we think that it has 

 recommendations of its own and will not be found unfruitful of interest. 



The beginning of the leaf is the bud. The foliage buds which we see 

 expanding in the spring are formed the autumn before ; and the busy 



Photo by-] 



FIG. 301. HORSE-CHESTNUT (dSsculus hippocastanum). 



[E. Step. 



On the right is a leaf with a normal leaf-stalk; on the left one with broad furry stalk ; and in the centre a bud-scale. 

 The intermediate character of the left-hand leaf shows that the bud-scale is a modified leaf. 



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