HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



and may further be spoken of as trifoliate. A horsechestnut 

 leaf is compound, and, being composed of five spreading 

 leaflets, springing from one point is a digitate (finger) leaf. 

 A pinnate leaf is one like the ash or locust trees. The out- 

 lines of leaves are smooth, or serrate (like the teeth of a 

 saw), wavy, incised, dentate, words that are in common use. 



The veinings of leaves are of two kinds, parallel and net. 

 Grass leaves, also tulip and iris leaves, are parallel, the veins 

 running from base to tip of leaf in nearly parallel lines. 

 Net-veins run from one or more prominent midribs to all 

 parts of the leaf, branching irregularly, interlacing with 

 one another, making meshes like those of a fish-net. The 

 veins of a leaf are its frame, its supporting skeleton. 



A leaf-stalk is called a petiole. Leaves which are joined 

 to the main stem without any stalk of their own are said 

 to be sessile, a word meaning sitting. Stipules are leafy 

 appendages found at the bases of some leaf-stalks, large 

 and leaf-like or small and scale-like. 



Annuals and Perennials 



Annuals die down every year and are reproduced from 

 seed the next season. Perennials continue to live year after 

 year. Biennials have a life of two years, storing food for 

 themselves the first year, upon which they live the next, 

 dying down after that. 



A leaf axil is the angle formed by the leaf and its stem, on 

 the upper side of the leaf. Most buds spring from leaf 

 axils. 



The foregoing and a few additional technical terms are 

 summed up in the following 



GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS 



Achene or akene. — A small, dry, in dehiscent, i-seeded fruit. 

 Anther. — That part of the stamen which contains the pollen, usually con- 

 sisting of 2 cells which, when the pollen is ripe, open by a slit. 

 Axil. — The upper angle at the junction of stem and branch. 



Bloom. — A soft, whitish, powdery appearance on fruit, leaves, etc. 

 Bract. — A small leaf at the base of or upon the flower-stalk. 



Calyx. — The outer flower-leaves, usually green. 



Capsule. — The dry, dehiscent fruit of a compound pistil, as in poppy. 



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