76 ARMATURE. PART 1. 



he designates by the appellation of ramenta, seem 

 to me to be decided stipulae, issuing not only in. 

 pairs from the base of the foot-stalk, but being also 

 quite green at their first appearance ; and not 

 always merely strap-shaped, but in many cases egg- 

 oblong. They soon become brown, indeed, and 

 fall ; but so do many of the acknowledged stipulae, 

 which are evidently deciduous, if not rather ca- 

 ducous, and from which the appendages in question 

 are not sufficiently distinct to justify their trans- 

 ference to the head of ramenta. 



SECTION VI. 

 Armature. 



Defini- THE armature consists of such accessory and aux- 

 iliary, parts as seem to have been intended by nature 

 to defend the plant against the attacks of animals. 



Stings. Sometimes this organ of defence is a stin, as in 



O o' 



the case of the common Stinging Nettle (PL III. 

 Fig. 11.), the sting of which is a slender and 

 awl-shaped process of about one twentieth of an inch 

 in length, originating in the outer rind and issuing 

 generally at right angles both from the stem and 

 leaf. It is acuminated into a fine point at the apex 

 and dilated at the base, where it contains a secreted 

 and venomous fluid which it discharges by the point 

 when pressed ; the point, from its extreme minute- 

 ness, penetrating, at the same time, the body that 



7 



