PART I 



LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT 



CHAPTER I 

 THE STUDY OF LEAVES 



What constitutes a Leaf. — In order to use this book with 

 ease and success it will first be necessary to learn what 

 constitutes a leaf of a plant. The reader must be able to 

 pick off a whole leaf and nothing hut a leaf from any shrub. 

 Leaves are present on plants through the growing season, 

 and they are the only portions besides the stems on which 

 they grow which are always to be found. The flowers are 

 short-lived on all plants, and the fruits are in only compara- 

 tively few species to be found through the year. 



In looking on a group of shrubs of hundreds of species, 

 a small number, a dozen or less, will be found in bloom 

 at any given time. The great and lasting beauty of- these 

 plants is their foliage. The differences which the species 

 show are easily seen in the forms and the surface of the 

 blades of the leaves. So if the reader wants to become 

 acquainted with plants, he must recognize their leaves. 



We all know many things by sight which we cannot 

 express in words ; but if we wish to use such a book as this 

 to become acquainted with the part of nature with which 

 it deals, we must see how the words used by the author 

 apply to the plant parts under observation. The first and 

 most important step in this knowledge is the ability to 

 determine what constitutes a full leaf. 



The visible growing parts of bushes ar* the stems and 



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