OP THE VEINS. 53 



apex, as seen in the leaf of the oak or birch. If there be several simi- 

 lar divisions of the petiole, radiating from the base of the leaf, they are 

 appropriately termed veins ; and the leaf is said to be three-veined, 

 five-veined, etc. Ex. maple. 



257. The primary branches sent off from the mid vein, or the veins 

 we may term the VEINLETS, and the secondary branches, or those sent 

 off from the veinlets, are the VEINULETS. These also branch and subdi- 

 vide until they become too small for vision. 



108 



106 



Varieties of venation. 106, feather-reined, leaf of Betula populifolia (white birch), lying upon 

 a leaf of plum-tree ; same venation with different outlines. 107, Palmate-veined, leaf of white 

 maple, contrasted with leaf ofCercis Canadensis. 103, Parallel venation, plant of "three-leaved 

 Solomon's-seal," (Asteranthemum trifoliatum Kunih.) 109, Forked venation, climbing fern 

 (Lygodium). 



258. MODES OP VENATION. Botanists distinguish three principal 

 modes of venation, which are in general characteristic of the three 

 grand divisions of the vegetable kingdom already noticed. 



RETICULATE, OR NET- VEINED, as in the Exogens : this kind of vena- 

 tion is characterized by the frequent reunion or inosculation of its nu- 

 merously branching veins, so as to form a kind of irregular net- work. 



PARALLEL-VEINED, as in the Endogens, The veins, whether straight 

 or curved, run parallel, or side by side, to the apex of the leaf, or to the 

 margin, and are always connected by simple transverse veinlets. 



FORK-VEINED, as in the ferns (and other Cryptogamia, where veins 

 are present at all). Here the veins divide and subdivide in a furcate 

 manner, and do not re-unite. 



