LEAF-BEGINNINGS AND LEAF-FOEMS 



273 



FIG. 332. DAISY (Bellis perennis). 

 The leaves are of the spathulate shape, and form a rosette from which arise the composite 



IE. Step. 



vers on scapes. 



and glossy leaves afford when other trees are stripped and brown. Southey 

 says : 



When all the summer trees are seen 



So bright and green, 

 The Holly-leaves their fadeless hues display 



Less bright than they ; 



But when the bare and wintry woods 

 we see, 



What then so cheerful as the Holly- 

 tree ? 



The Holly (Ilex) is, in short, an evergreen, the leaves of one year re- 

 maining on the plant through the winter, until those of the next spring 

 have formed ; in which respect it resembles the Ivy and Laurel. Many 

 of the Conifers (Pines, Yews, Junipers, etc.) have needle-shaped (adcular) 

 leaves, which persist for many years (fig. 339). The great majority of 

 plants, however, shed their leaves in the autumn they are deciduous. 



A far more dangerous fellow than our red-berried Christmas friend is 

 the plant whose straggling woody stem finds support against the Holly's 

 tougher boughs. Its drooping clusters of lurid purple flowers, with yellow 

 anthers united into a cone, at once proclaim it to be the Woody Night- 

 shade, or Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara). Notice its upper leaves, the 

 small basal lobes of which form two little wings, or ears. Such leaves 

 21 



