WAYSIDE WEEDS. Ill 



examine the plant itself, or turn to the illustration. 

 Again, as partly exemplified in the lime leaf, and 

 also in the nettle, other ribs or veins frequently 

 start from the base of the leaf as well as the midrib. 

 This leaf ribbing or veining has much to do with 

 determining the form of the leaf, and you cannot do 

 better than compare its variations in any broad 

 leaves you may gather. 



But now take the long thin leaf of grass (Pig. 

 56), of sedge, or of water iris ; or, if you prefer 

 garden flowers, take hyacinth, tulip, or lily of the 

 valley ; you will find no branchings in these leaves, 

 nothing but straight lines or veins running all the 

 length of the leaf. You see at once we have our 

 leaves divided into two distinct classes — netted- 

 veined leaves and straight-veined leaves. The 

 former greatly preponderate in our northern regions, 

 the latter occurring only in the form of grasses or 

 small flowering plants; but in the southern and 

 tropical chmates this is reversed, and then the 

 straight- veined leaf is found on the loftiest trees, on 

 the palm, the banana, the arborescent if still grassy 

 bamboo, whilst it characterizes also the beautiful or 

 quaint orchid. You will find, when we come to 

 our lesson on classification, that these two kinds of 

 leaves mark with great exactness the two great 

 divisions of the flowering and seeding members of 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



Let us go back to the leaves with netted veins. 



