NOTES ON nuns 
I [ 
nature, for the middle point indicates a totally arrested blade. 
On dissecting a bud the minute pinnate leaf with conduplicate 
leaflets can be detected within. As in the case of the walnut, so 
does the rose curve its half-formed leaf downwards, the several 
leaflets all being at first packed together side by side, till the time 
comes to expand them and to assume the horizontal position. 
Fig. 7 represents a young shoot of the Portugal laurel. The 
stipules are still present, but will soon fall off. The whole 
branch has grown erect, as in the ash ; while the blades are 
seen to be conduplicate, the two halves are, however, represented 
as just beginning to separate from each other. 
Laminar Scales. — For a bud-scale to be constructed out of 
a metamorphosed blade of a leaf is comparatively rare compared 
with the previous methods ; but such occurs in the lilac, way- 
faring tree and conifers, in which the common needle-like leaf 
is reduced to a subtriangular form in the outer scales. 
On dissecting a lilac-bud the scales increase in size from 
without inwards, being elongated and boat-shaped, with a 
distinct mid-rib and branching lateral veins, as in a true blade, 
until one is arrived at having a short, distinct petiole and a 
“cordate” base, when the true blade is clearly revealed. This 
bud show's how rash it would be to assume that the outer scales 
were of the same nature as those of the ash or lime, though 
they are all apparently precisely alike externally. 
Vernation.* — This word is applied by botanists to signify 
the various ways in which the young leaves are packed up in 
the bud — on the one hand, how each individual leaf is folded, 
and on the other, how it lies with reference to the rest. The 
*From Latin ver, “spring”; vernation may therefore signify “spring 
quarters.” 
Fig. 7. 
Portugal Laurel. 
Fig. 8. 
Laburnum. 
