VIII. THE STEM. 1 49 



disguised in every possible way, according to the 

 leaf's need : in the aspen, the leaf-stalk becomes 

 an absolute vertical plank ; and in the large trees 

 is often almost rounded into the likeness of a 

 fruit-stalk ; — but, in all,* the essential structure is 

 this doubled one ; and in all, it opens at the place 

 where the leaf joins the main stem, into a kind of 

 cup, which holds next year's bud in the hollow 

 of it. 



9. Now there would be no inconvenience in your 

 simply getting into the habit of calling the round 

 petiol of the fruit the ' stalk,' and the contracted 

 channel of the leaf, ' leaf-stalk.' But this way of 

 naming them would not enforce, nor fasten in your 

 mind, the difference between the two, so well as 

 if you have an entirely different name for the 

 leaf-stalk. Which is the more desirable, because 

 the limiting character of the leaf, botanically, 

 is — -(I only learned this from my botanical 

 friend the other day, just in the very moment I 

 wanted it,) — that it holds the bud of the new 

 stem in its own hollow, but cannot itself grow 

 in the hollow of anything else ; — or, in botanical 

 language, leaves are never axillary, — don't grow 

 in armpits, but are themselves armpits ; hollows, 



* General assertions of this kind must always be accepted 

 under indulgence, — exceptions being made afterwards. 



