1 88 COUN CLOUrS CA LEX PAR. 



driven l)y circumstances lo take up their abode in such 

 spots have been forced to j^a-t rid of their own real 

 leaves, and to develop some other distinct or^an into a 

 serviceable foliar substitute in their place. If they did 

 not do so, they dieil out entirely, and there was an end 

 of them : only those which happened to accommodate 

 themselves to their environment in this particular suc- 

 ceedeil in finally survivinj^ ; and amon^rsl such survivors 

 are the asparaj^^us bushes of the presejit day. 



How such chan^;es be<;an to take place we can 

 better understand if we look for a moment at the ana- 

 loj^ous case of the butciier's broom which ^rows instead 

 of box in the little hed^^c here by the shrubbery. lUitcher's 

 broom is another aberrant lily, and a very close ally of 

 the asparai,ais tribe ; but it shows us the same peculiari- 

 ties in a rather less marked and advanced decree. I 

 suppose everybody knows its stiff prickly leaves, with a 

 small white six-[)etalled flower apparently growing out 

 of the very centre of each leaf. In this case it is easier 

 to realise that the .seeming leaves arc really altercil 

 branches— first because wc can actually sec the flowers 

 still budding out of their midst ; and, .secondly, because 

 if we look close we can observe a minute .scale, which is 

 the rudiment of a true leaf, springing from their mid- 

 rib just below the point where the flowers are given off. 

 Careful examination, in fact, shows us that the branch 

 has become flattened and leaf-like, but that it still re- 

 tains all the cs.scntial characters of a branch : because it 

 bears flowers and true leaves, whereas, of course, no- 

 body ever saw one true leaf growing right out of the 

 back of another. It is worthy of notice, too, that, in 

 order to protect the flowers from injury, each .seeming 



