146 AN INTRODUCTION 







CHAP. XIII. 

 OF RAMIFICATION. 



RAMIFICATION is the manner in which a tree 

 produces its branches, with the situation of which 

 that of the leaves is also connected*. 



Some plants have no branches, though they have 

 leaves which are placed on the stem. This is the case 

 with Dictarnnus, Paeonia, Epimedium, and Podo- 

 phyllum. 



Leaves opposite or alternate are generally a mark 

 of great difference in plants: a few genera, however, 

 must be excepted, which have some species with op- 

 posite leaves, and others with alternate ; as in Eu- 

 phorbia, Cistus, Lantana, Antirrhinum, Lilium and 

 Epilobium. 



In Antirrhinum, Jasminum, Veronica, and Bor- 

 rago, the lower leaves at the branches are opposite, 

 and the upper ones at the flowers alternate. 



In Potentilla supina, and in Potamogeton, the 

 lower leaves are alternate, and the upper ones on the 

 branches opposite. 



In Nerium, the lower leaves" are opposite, and the 

 upper ones tern. 



* The doctrines delivered here under the head of Ramifi- 

 cation do not answer to the title, the greater part respecting 

 rather the situation of the Leaves than that of the Branches : 

 They migh't, with more propriety, have been collected under 

 a head of Foliation ; but as the term Foliation is meant to 

 express the habit of plants, in respect to the position of 

 leaves in the bud before they disclose themselves, as will be 

 shewn in Chap. 16. these doctrines could not have stood un- 

 der the same head, without a confusion in the use of the term ; 

 and this seems to be the reason why Linnaeus, whom we fol- 

 low, has given them in this place. 



