THE LEAVES OF VASCULAR PLANTS. 287 



of palmatisected leaves, which is perhaps the case with 

 the seminal leaves of Firs. 



It is sometimes difficult to distinguish well the lower 

 leaflets of leaves with stipules; and this confusion is 

 especially easy in two cases — viz. when the stipules are 

 foKaceous, or when they adhere to the petiole ; but, in 

 either case, a httle attention given to the point of origin 

 of the stipule will remove all doubts. 



One of the most striking general characters to dis- 

 tinguish leaves and stipules is, that the former have at 

 their axil a bud, of which the latter are devoid : this 

 observation makes me doubt if it be correct to say, that 

 the two buds which are developed laterally to the axil, 

 in the young shoots of the Willow, of which the natural 

 bud has been removed, are those of the stipules, as Du 

 Petit-Thouars appears to think ; but whether they are not 

 rather simple adventitious ones, such as can be produced 

 in other places and other trees where no stipules are 

 found. 



The leaflets of compound leaves present sometimes at 

 their base, little organs, which are to these leaflets nearly 

 the same as stipules are to leaves. I have given to them 

 the name of Stipels. They are general solitary at 

 the base of the lateral leaflets, and to the number of two 

 (one on each side) at the base of the terminal one ; 

 they are observed, for example, in most of the Hedy- 

 sareas. 



The natural use of the stipules appears in general 

 to be, to cover over and to protect the leaves during 

 their development. This is evident in the Amentacege, 

 Rosaceee, and, in general, in plants the buds of which 

 are wholly, or in part, formed by the stipules ; but it 

 must be confessed that in several cases their small size, 

 their nature, or their form, renders them hardly fit for 

 this purpose, which is the only one that can be assigned 



