72 



FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



of the veins. How are they shajied ? In a thousand 

 ways, you say. True ; but if you look again, you will 

 see that most of them are feather-like in the way the 

 veins run. Look at the feather in fig. 37 and compare 

 it with the leaf shewn on fig. 38. The plan in both 

 is a number of side-ribs running from a strong mid- 

 rib. 



A feather. A f eatber-veined An oak leaf with Feathcr-lcaf doepiy out. 

 leaf. dotted line to show 



bow the edge has 

 been cut into. 



9. Take now an oak leaf, (fig. 3'.M. Here we have, as 

 before, the side-veins running from a mid-rib, but the 

 leaf looks as if you had cut bits out from the margin. 

 If it had been uncut like the leaf in fig. 3.s, it would have 

 had the shape which I have traced by dulted lines. 

 In some plants the leaf is more deeply cut, i,fig. 40) ; 

 but in this case, too, the plan of the skeleton is the 

 same : a mid-rib that sends off side-ribs. Sometimes 



