12 A FLORA OP MANILA 



tissues as not to be evident to the naked eye; in such cases the nerves 

 are spoken of as obsolete or wanting. 



As to the outlines of leaves, various terms have been selected to describe 

 certain shapes. These terms are also used for any other flat parts of the 

 plant, such as petals, sepals, some fruits, seeds, etc. Leaves are linear 

 when they are narrow and several times longer than wide and of about the 

 same width throughout, their margins nearly parallel; lanceolate when 

 three or more times as long as wide, widest below and taper upward or 

 both upward and downward, shaped more or less like a lance; oblan- 

 ceolate, the reverse of lanceolate, broadest above the middle and tapering 

 downward; oblong when two or three times as long as broad and not con- 

 spicuously narrowed, the sides nearly parallel; elliptic when shaped like 

 an ellipse, equally rounded at both ends; ovate when twice or less as loni? 

 as broad, widest below the middle and more or less narrowed upward; 

 obovate, the reverse of ovate, widest above the middle and tapering down- 

 ward; oval, somewhat like elliptic, but the breadth distinctly more than one 

 half the length; orbicular when circular in outline; spatulate when narrow, 

 more or less rounded above, and tapering from near the apex to the base; 

 cuneate or wedged-shaped when broad above, tapering by nearly straight 

 lines to the base; falcate when more or less curved; flabellate or fan- 

 shaped when broad and rounded at the top, narrowed below like a fan; 

 reniform when broader than long, shaped somewhat like a kidney. Various 

 combinations like oblong-ovate, oblong-lanceolate, etc., are self explanatory, 

 and are used to describe intermediate forms. 



As to the tip or apex of the leaf , it may be rounded when broad and 

 semicircular in outline; truncate, that is cut off square or nearly so; acute 

 when ending in an acute angle with straight sides ; acuminate when pointed, 

 but the tapering lines incurved; obtuse when blunt or narrowly rounded; 

 retuse when slightly notched at the apex; emarginate, more prominently 

 notched; obcordate, that is inversely heart-shaped, an obovate leaf deeply 

 notched at the apex; cuspidate, tipped with a sharp point; mucronate 

 when abruptly tipped by a small short point; and dristate when the 

 mucronate point is extended into a longer and more or less bristle-like 

 appendage. Some of these terms are also applicable ta the base of the 

 leaf, and most or all of them to various other organs of the plant. 



As to the base, of the leaf , it may be cordate or heart-shaped when the 

 outline of itS rounded base is turned in forming a sinus where the petiole 

 is attached; auricled, that is eared, having a pair of small projections 

 at the base; sagittate or arrow-shaped where the ears or lobes are acute 

 and tamed downwards; and hastate where the basal lobes are acute and 

 point outwards. A leaf is peltate or shield-shaped when the petiole is 

 attached to the lower surface, the ribs or veins of the leaf radiating from 

 the point of insertion. 



Lea.ves are simple when the blade is of a single piece, without regard 

 to how much it may be cut up, and compound when the blade consists of 

 two or more separate parts on a common petiole. In compound leaves 

 the individual parts of the leaf-blade are called leaflets anJlKelr'stal^ 

 the petiolules; the extension of the petiole above the lowest leaflets i;i 

 many compound leaves is called the rachis. Some compound leaves have 

 their leaflets or petiolules subtended by -variously shaped, usually small, 

 appendages corresponding to the stipules of the leaves; these appendages 

 are called stipels; leaflets are called stipellato v/hen these organs are 



