THE STUDY OF LEAVES 17 



investigating companion. Two heads and two pairs of 

 eyes are found to be much better than one for the study of 

 nature by a beginner. 



Of the dozen species probably half will have buds as 

 large and conspicuous as to be easily seen by any one, 

 especially if it is summer time. In these cases the whole 

 leaf is all that is attached to the stem just under or below 

 the bud. Some of these leaves may be very small, less 

 than an inch in length, while others may be a foot or 

 more long. Many leaves will have but one blade or 

 spreading green portion, while others may have any num- 

 ber of blades — a score, a hundred, or possibly a thousand. 

 The leaf of the waxberry (Plate II, Fig. G) has one blade; 

 the clover, three ; rose bushes, three, five, or seven (some 

 species have over seven); the elder bushes (Plate III, 

 Fig. P), seven to eleven ; some of the sumachs, over 

 twenty-five ; and the acacia tree, several hundred (Plate 

 IV, Fig. S). 



Having determined about those which have conspicuous 

 buds in the axils of the leaves, take other twigs and, re- 

 membering that leaves mark the joints of stems, try to 

 break off whole leaves. In some cases the buds will show 

 after the leaves are stripped off, because they were hidden 

 under their bases (Plate III, Fig. R). A few may have 

 flowers, fruit, or twigs above the leaves; these are the 

 developed buds which could earlier have been found in 

 the unopened state. The final specimen or two may possi- 

 bly show neither buds nor branches in the axils, as these 

 develop visibly only later in the year. 



As was said, the growing parts of plants are the stems 

 with their leaves. Stems are more or less continually 

 growing at their tips ; this is especially true in shrubs. 

 But the leaves, no matter how . complicated, soon reach 

 their full size and stop growing. The forward growing 

 part is sure to be a plant stem, and the parts which mark 

 it into joints, no matter how small and scale-like they ap- 

 pear, are full leaves. In all parts of the United States 

 apgar's shrubs — 2 



