WAYSIDE WEEDS. 109 



it is ; but you remember, probably, that many 

 bracts were not by any means so readily distin- 

 guishable from the leaves ; indeed, that in numerous 

 cases they were, to all appearance, leaves and no- 

 thing else, but for the fact of being supplementary 

 to the peduncles or pedicels of the blossoms, as 

 we see in Figs. 53, 69, and 71, where the flower- 

 leaves or bracts are indistingaishable from ordinary 

 leaves. The transition then is natural from a lesson 

 on bracts to a lesson on leaves. 



A first look around you upon the varied foliage 

 of a summer landscape in England, or even a 

 cursory glance over that of the first meadow or 

 hedge-row you come to, will give some "notion of 

 the infinite variety of leaf forms j and it niay seem a 

 formidable task in prospect to acquire a knowledge 

 of them, but the interest will rejiay the labour, and 

 the latter is not really great when the general rules 

 are mastered which botanists employ to reduce the 

 apparently heterogeneous collection to order and 

 classification. We do not seem to have moved from 

 the vicinity of the lime-treeS) so pluck one of its 

 bright green shining leaves ; or failing the Hme-tree, 

 gather a nettle-leaf (Fig: 72), which will do as well ; 

 or, if you fear the sting, look for the red dead- 

 nettle, which will not sting, or for a violet-leaf, or 

 indeed for the first broad-looking leaf you can find. 

 Lest, however, you should not be in the way of any 

 other leaves • than those of the present number of 



