BUDS 127 



it swells and lengthens ; the numerous bud-scales part, 

 and several brown membranes (stipules) appear 

 between them. As the bud expands more full}-, 

 green leaves push out from among the brown stipules. 

 As in the Sycamore the leaf is folded. From the 

 midrib about ten pairs of lateral ribs are given off, and 

 the thin, green blade is sharply folded between each 

 pair. The ribs and the margin of the leaf are fringed 

 with silky hairs, which entangle much air, and so screen 

 the delicate young leaf from cold winds or fierce 

 sunlight. In Horse Chestnut, the great White Willow, 

 and some other trees the leaves are downy when the}' 

 first appear, but cast all their hairs before long. The 

 shoot enclosed within the bud of the Beech grows fast, 

 and the stipules soon become widely spaced, then 

 the leaves and leaf-stalks are fully seen, and we 

 observe that the stipules spring in pairs from the bases 

 of the leaves. Each stipule is a long curly, strap-like 

 blade, which withers and falls off as soon as the leaf 

 is fully expanded. 



Stipules do not always fall off early. In Hawthorn, 

 Lady's Mantle, Pansies, and many other plants they 

 form small green leaves of peculiar shape, which last 

 all summer. What are stipules? They are lateral 

 outgrowths from the leaf-base, which develop earl}-, 

 and enclose the central part, or leaf proper. They are 

 often a protection to the unexpanded leaf, and where 

 this is their sole function, they are deciduous. 



The principal leaf-blade and the stipules, if there 

 are any, spring from a particular part of the leaf, which 

 we have called the leaf-base. This is flattish, and of 

 inconsiderable length in the full-grown leaf. If a leaf- 



