CHAP. 1. THE LEAF. 57 



scattered, or in two rows, or in whirls, as in 

 Ladies' Bed-straw. (PL II. Fig. 14.) Sometimes 

 two or more are found to issue from the same point ; 

 sometimes they are all turned to one side of the 

 stem, as in the genus Convallaria (PL II. Fig. 15.), 

 and sometimes they are laid close to the stem and 

 imbricated like the tiles of a house, as in Erica 

 vulgari*. 



Like the branches their direction is also vertical, 

 or expanding, or horizontal, as in Gentiana cam- 

 pestris ; or reflected, as in Erica retort a; or floating, 

 as in the leaf of the Water Lily. 



The size of the leaf as well as all the other Size of 

 qualities, varies according to the species of plant 

 on which it grows. But it is not always the largest 

 plant that has the largest leaf. The leaf of Caltha 

 palustris, though an humble herb, is larger than 

 the leaf of the Oak, though a lofty tree. The largest 

 leaf produced on any British species of plant is, 

 I believe, that of Arctium Lappa, or Tussilago 

 Petasites ; and yet it is scarcely fit to be compared 

 with the leaves of many of the Exotics. The leaf 

 of Strditzia reg'ma grows to the height of three or 

 four feet by eighteen inches at the broadest, and yet 

 there are others still larger. The leaves of the 

 Banana or Plantain-tree have been known to grow to 

 the extent of ten feet in length by two feet at the 

 base ; * so that some writers, owing perhaps to their 



* Lour, Flor. Cochin. 



