96 Thorny and Climbing Plants. (A walk) 



become sharp at the end to serve as a defence to the 

 trees. Another proof that this is so lies in the fact that 

 the thorns are seen to grow in the axils of leaves, and 

 you learnt last term that this is where the young 

 branches are always to be found. 



On looking at a gooseberry twig you might think 

 that the opposite was the case here, for a bud is seen to 



Fig. 48. Gooseberry twig. The thorns are outgrowths from the base 

 of the leaves. 



be growing in the axil of a thorn (Fig. 48). Last 

 autumn, however, you would have found that a leaf 

 grew between the thorn and the bud, and if you look 

 carefully now between the two you may be able to see 

 the leaf scar there. The thorn cannot therefore be a 

 changed leaf, since the leaf was there as well. All you 

 can say of it is that it is a woody outgrowth from the 

 base of the leaf. 



