CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
Stalks. —The stalks are the offshoots from the stem, which directly support the leaves, 
and are variously styled peduncles, pedicels, petioles, meaning respectively flowerstalks, 
footstalks and leafstalks. 
Axil.— The axil is the angle formed on the upper surface, between the stem and leaf, 
where the buds, called on that account axillary, spring fi'om the stem (13). 
L JE asv m s. 
NDERSTOOD to be expansions or elongations from the stem, 
leaves consist of a network of fibers or nerves in two distinct sets, 
one to each surface. The purposes they serve are mainly three: to 
expose a broader surface to the action of the light and heat, to aid 
evaporation, and to facilitate the absorption of carbonic acid from the 
air. They discharge the function fulfilled by the lungs in the animal 
kingdom. They are called radical , when they spring around the root, 
the Dandelion; alternate, when only one appears on each joint of the 
stem, as in the Toad-flax (13); opposite, when in pairs opposite each other, as 
in the Mint (14); avliorled, when in a circle around the stem, as in the Purple 
Eupatorium (15); and tufted, when they appear in bunches or tufts at the top, 
as in the Eryngo (16), or as in the Palm. 
Leaves are further distinguished as sessile, when they sit, as it were, on the stem, 
without intervening stalks, as in the Eryngo (16); deciduous, if they fall annually, as in 
most trees and shrubs; and persistent, if they survive the season, as in the evergreens. 
A leaf is simple, when composed of one piece only, as in the Round-leaved Bell¬ 
flower (17); binate, ternate, quatemate or quinate, according as it has, on a common 
stalk, respectively, two leaflets, as in the Listera; three, as in the Clover (18); four, as 
in the exceptional four-leaved Clover; or five, as in the Ampelopsis (19); pinnate, when a 
number of leaves are arranged feather-like along the stalk, as in the Pea (20). A simple 
leaf is sometimes wavy along the edge, as in the China Primrose (21), or has three lobes, 
as in the Hypatica, five, as in the Castor-oil Plant, or seven, as in the Lady’s Mantle (22). 
Leaves are digitate, when they all spring, like so many fingers, from the tip of the 
leafstalk, as in the Virginia Creeper (23); palmate, when the leaflets leave a space at their 
common center, not unlike the palm of the hand, as in the Horse-chestnut (24); pedate, 
or foot-like, as in the Chenopodiums, or when a palmate or other leaf has an additional 
cleft in the edge, not as deep as the digitate, and hence called pedate, as in the Mandrake 
(25); peltate, or shield-like, when the stalk is attached at or near the center, as in the 
Nasturtium (26); perfoliate, when the stalk passes through the leaf (27), as in the Bone- 
set; connate, when two leaves are joined at their bases, the stalk passing through at the 
junction, as in the Lychnis (28). 
Again, by reason of peculiarities of the edges, leaves are called entire, when there is 
an unbroken, gradual curvature of the margin, as in the Silenc (29); crenate, crenelled or 
scotlopped, when it is notched like a scollop shell, as in the Ground Ivy (30); serrate, or 
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