INTRODUCTION 



their arrangement cannot well be determined, as in the submerged 

 leaves of the Water Crowfoots, it is called decompound. 



The same terms are used in describing the surfaces of leaves as 

 for those of herbaceous stems. They may be glabrous, or free 

 from hairs ; polished, as in many Evergreens and Monocoty- 

 ledons ; glaucous, with a blue-grey waxy bloom, as in the Sea-kale ; 

 downy, as in Sage ; hairy ; prickly, as in the Teazle ; or glandular, 

 dotted over with oil-glands, as in St. John's-wort. 



In texture leaves may be leathery, as Holly, or fleshy, as in 

 House-leek ; and in duration they are either deciduous, dying and 

 falling in autumn or earlier, or evergreen, lasting until a new crop 

 has formed, as in the Ivy, the Pine, and the Yew. 



Lyrate leaf of the Whi 

 Mustard. 



Head of Scabious. 



The Hairs on stems or leaves require careful notice, as to 

 whether they are few or many, long or short, stiff or weak, spread- 

 ing (erect on the surface from which they spring) or adpressed 

 (lying flat). The Nettles are the only British plants with stinging 

 hairs. 



The Inflorescence is a branch known as the peduncle (literally 

 "little foot," and therefore sometimes called foot-stalk), which gener- 

 ally bears modified leaves known as bracts, from the axils of which 

 spring secondary branches, which may branch again or bear a 

 flower, the stalk immediately below a flower being termed a pedicel 

 or flower-stalk. A peduncle springing directly from an under- 

 ground stem and not bearing foliage-leaves, forms the inflorescence 

 known as a scape, which may be one-flowered, as in the Tulip, or 

 many-flowered, as in the Hyacinth, Cowslip, or Primrose. The 

 difference between the two last-named examples is that the Cowslip 



