ON THE SUBSIDIARY USES OF STIPULES 185 



(Ladies' Bedstraw), where they are indistinguishable in 

 form from the leaves. 



Linnaeus long ago pointed out that though the 

 Stellatce (Galium, Rubia, &c.) are generally described 

 as having their leaves in whorls of four, six, eight, or 

 more, there are, as a matter of fact, only two leaf-blades 

 in the ordinary sense, and the other leaf-like organs are 

 really stipules. De Candolle expressed the same 

 opinion, and pointed out that buds 

 are not produced at the base of all 

 the foliaceous appendages, but only 

 of those corresponding to true leaf- 

 blades. 1 Where there are six leaf- 

 lets, these correspond to two leaf- 

 blades and their four stipules. Where 

 there are only four leaflets, this is 

 considered to be due to a coalescence 

 of stipules by pairs, as in the case of 

 the Hop. 



Acacia vertitillata (fig. 310) and 

 some nearly allied species constitute 

 an instructive and interesting case. 

 A. verticillata has linear, pointed, laterally compressed 

 phyllodes, arranged in whorls, so that it has very 

 much the look of a strong Galium. Buds only occur 

 here and there along the stem, and the phyllodes 

 generally have no stipules, their presence depending 

 1 Praelect. in Ord. Nat. Plantarum, 1792, p. 520. 



Fio. 309. Leaf of 

 Pansy. 



S, stipule. 



