IX. OUTSIDE AND IN. 



anyhow, like the minds of so many people whom one 

 knows ! 



8. Returning then to our grasses, in which the real 

 rooting and junction of the leaves with each other is at 

 these joints; we find that therefore every leaf of grass 

 rnay be thought of as consisting of two main parts, for 

 which we shall want two separate names. The lowest 

 part, which wraps itself round to become strong, we will 

 call the * staff,' and for the free-floating outer part we will 

 take specially the name given at present carelessly to a 

 large number of the plants themselves, ' flag.' This will 

 give a more clear meaning to the words * rod ' (virga), 

 and 4 staff ' (bacillus), when they occur together, as in the 

 23rd Psalm ; and remember the distinction is that a rod 

 bends like a switch, but a staff is stiff. I keep the well- 

 known name ' blade ' for grass-leaves in their fresh green 

 state. 



9. You felt, as you were bending down the paper into 

 the form d, Fig. 21, the difficulty and awkwardness of 

 the transition from the tubular form of the staff to the 

 flat one of the flag. The mode in which this change is 

 effected is one of the most interesting features in plants, 

 for you will find presently that the leaf-stalk in ordinary 

 leaves is only a means of accomplishing the same change 

 from round to flat. But you know I said just now that 

 some leaves were not flat, but set upright, edgeways. It 

 is not a common position in two-leaved trees ; but if you 

 can run out and look at an arbor vitse, it may interest you 



