AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT, ZZ 



PLATE 19. 



" Nature never did betray 

 The heart that loved her : 'tis her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 

 From joy to joy j for she can so infortn 

 The mind that is within Us, so impress 

 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 

 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongties, 

 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 

 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 

 The dreary intercourse of daily life 

 Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb 

 Our cheerful faith, that all thit we behold 

 Is full of blessings. "^Wordsworth. 



The broad-leaved Everlasting Pea, the Lathyrus latif alius of botanists, the subject of 

 the present plate, is, strictly speaking, a garden flower ; for though it is occasionally found in what 

 may be considered a wild state, it is in all cases only as an escape from cultivation. It is very 

 rarely to be met with in this semi-wild state, though it has been found in woods in Cumberland, 

 Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, and one or two other English bounties, and on the Salisbury Craigs, 

 Edinburgh ; as a cultivated plant it is by no means uncommon ; its hardiness, climbing pro- 

 perties, perennial nature, and profusion of beautiful bloom, rendering it a general favourite. It 

 will be found in flower during July and August. The plant is a native of Southern Europe, 

 though some botanists are unwilling to admit its claim to be considered a species, regarding it 

 only as a variety of the L. sylvestris, or narrow-leaved Everlasting Pea, a somewhat common 

 plant. The main points of distinction are- — that in L. latifolius the flowers are larger, and richer 

 in colour, and the leaves are much broader in proportion to their length. The winging of the 

 stem is a very conspicuous and striking feature in both species. The semi-sagittate stipulate forms 

 of the present plant are a very ornamental characteristic. In introducing the plant with any 

 ornamental composition, a great variety of form is possible without violation of natural truth, as, at 

 the same time, the bud, the opening and fully expanded flower, and the ripened pod, may be found 

 on one plant. All these stages of the plant's history are represented on the plate. 



As we have already had occasion to refer to the stipules of plants, and shall, doubtless, still 

 further require to do so, the present seems a convenient opportunity to make some few and brief 

 observations concerning them. 



Stipules are scaly or foliaceous appendages, occurring at the base of the leaf-stalk in some 

 plants. They are generally two in number, one on either side of the stem. They are exceedingly 

 varied in form and size — in some cases being very similar in form to the true leaves ; while, at 

 other times, the modification of structure is so great that they become tendrils — ex. Simlax, or 

 thorns — ex. Pidatia. The young student must, therefore, regard their position more than their 

 appearance : the one being fixed, the other exceedingly variable. Stipulary forms are sometimes 

 found to embrace the stem in a sheath-like form ; this modification of the type form is called an 

 ochrea, and may be very well seen in the garden Rhubarb ; a Very similar form is seen in many 

 grasses. It is very curious that while, in many families of plants, as the Rosacece and Leguminosce, 

 the species are stipulate, in others, as the CaryophyllecB^ they are in every case wanting — the 

 plants being what is botartically termed exstipulate. Stipules, as we hav.e said, are extremely 

 variable in size, and in the proportion they bear to the true leaves; in some cases they are actually 

 larger, and very notably so in an allied species of the Everlasting Pea, the L. aphaca, where the real 

 leaves are almost abortive, and the large stipules found in their place perform the physiological 

 functions that normally fall to the office of the leaf. Stipules are very variable in their duration ; 

 in some cases they fall with the leaves at the approach of Autumn ; in others, as in the Oak, they 

 fall very early, the leaf then appearing exstipulate ; while in some cases they outlive the foliage, 

 remaining in situ, when the true leaves have disappeared. Occasionally the two stipules unite on 

 the side of the stem opposite to the leaf, and thus present the appearance of one large stem- 

 encircling stipule ; but the union is rarely ever complete, and, on close investigation, the line of 

 junction is perceptible. In opposite stipulate leaves it frequently happens that those of each side 

 of the leaf are united with those of the opposite leaf, and in this case it appears as though there 

 were but two stipules, one on each side, common to the two leaves. The leaflets of compound 

 leaves at times present, at their bases, little organs, bearing the same relationship to the leaflet 

 that the stipule does to a leaf. These are termed stipels ; they may be very well seen in the Scarlet 

 Runner. 



Turning now to our plates for illustrations, we find examples of exstipulate plants in the 

 Atropa Belladonna (fig. 271), and the Mistletoe (Viscum album, fig. 331) ; while in the Musk 



