666 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LKCT. XI. 



which implies that it is situated between the stem 

 and the petiole, with which it is united at the 

 lower part only, as in common Clover, Trifolium 

 prat ens e ; or extrafoliaceous (extrqfbliacea}, when 

 it is the reverse of the former. When stipules are 

 situated at the basis of the secondary footstalks 

 in compound leaves, as in Chinese Dolichos, D. 

 sinensis, and Hedysarum gyrans (97. p. 523), they 

 have been termed stipellae by M. Decandolle ; but 

 the distinction is superfluous. The ramenta of 

 some authors; the ochrea of Rottball*; the ligula 

 or membranafoliorum of the old writers, which is 

 a white membranous fringe, that crowns the 

 sheathing part of the leaf, encircling- the culm in 

 many grasses; and the sheath, which covers 

 each leaf before it is evolved, in some plants, as 

 exemplified in the genus Liriodendron, and the 

 Magnolia tribe (see cuts p. 474), are stipules. 

 I have already described the peculiar function of 

 this sheath (p. 475) : with regard to the functions 

 of stipules in general, little is known, although in 

 some instances they supply the place of the leaves : 

 thus the Yellow Vetchling, Lathyrus Aphaca, has 

 one or two pairs of real leaves only on the seedling 

 plants, which soon disappear, and their place is 

 afterwards supplied entirely by the stipules -}~. 

 Like some other parts of the vegetable body, the 



* Willdenow *s Principles of Botany, 51. 

 t Smith's Introduction, p. 221. 



