54 ON LEAVES. 



as thorns and tendrils, cannot come under either of these 

 denominations ? 



Mrs. B. I beg your pardon : they all originate in 

 leaves. Even the seed, when first ushered into life, comes 

 cradled in a folded leaf; but as in assuming the form of 

 a seed-vessel it loses that of a leaf, we must not allow it 

 to encroach upon the present subject of our conversation, 

 that of leaves properly speaking, which retain their origi- 

 nal form throughout the whole of their transitory existence. 



Caroline. Well, it must be confessed that this bord- 

 ers on the marvellous ; but I shall take it on your author- 

 ity till the time comes for you to explain it more fully. 



Mrs. B. It rests upon much better authority than 

 mine : it is sanctioned not only by the opinion of Mr. 

 De Candolle, but also by the celebrated Mr. Brown, who 

 was the first to develope this theory in England. In 

 Germany, so long as thirty years ago, the venerable poet 

 Goeth wrote a small treatise on the metamorphoses of 

 plants ; and if this little work has not met with the atten- 

 .tion it deserves, it is probable, that, being written by a 

 poet, it has been considered rather as the effusion of an 

 ardent imagination, than as the deductions of a philoso- 

 pher. B % ut, whatever be the changes which leaves may 

 undergo, it is our present business to treat of them in 

 'their state of leaves. 



If, when a leaf shoots, the fibres which attach it to the 

 stem or branch spread out immediately, the leaf is termed 

 sessile or continuous ; for it cannot be separated from the 

 stem without the fibres being torn asunder ; the leaves 

 of corn, grasses, and all gramineous plants, are of this 

 description. 



Emily. But it is much more common for leaves to be 

 attached to the branch by a foot-stalk. 



Mrs. B. With exogenous plants it is ; and the trees 

 and shrubs of our temperate climate are almost all of that 

 class. Such leaves are said to be articulated : the fibres 

 when they first separate from the stem remain bound to- 



272. Is this opinion correct^ 273. What does Mrs. B. say of the 

 seed! 274. Who was the first in England to develope the theory to 

 which allusion is madel 275. What is said of a German work refer- 

 ring to the same subject 1 ? 276 When is a leaf called sessile or con- 

 tinuous 1 ? 277. What leaves are of this classl 278 What plants 

 have their leaves attached to the branch by a foot stalk 1 299. How 

 are articulated leaves described 1 ? 





