APPENDAGES TO PLANTS. 
63 
as emblematical of your own mortality ; but, in examining their struc¬ 
ture, you may be led to admire and adore the power which formed them. 
Appendages to Plants. 
Plants have a set of organs, the uses of which are less apparent 
than those we have been considering; but we should not infer, be¬ 
cause the design for which they have been formed, is in some mea¬ 
sure concealed from us, that they were made for no purpose, or exist 
by mere accident; let us rather, with humility, acknowledge that this 
blindness must be owing to the limited nature of our own faculties. 
It would be impious for us to imagine, that all the works of God 
which we cannot comprehend are useless. 
The organs to which we now refer are called by the general name 
of appendages; they are the following : Stipules , Prickles , Thorns , 
Glands , Stings , Scales , Tendrils , Pubescence , and Bracts. 
1 st. Stipules are membra¬ 
nous or leafy scales, usually 
in pairs, at, or near the base 
of the leaf, or petiole. The 
stipules furnish characters 
used in botanical distinctions. 
They are various in their forms 
and situations, are found in 
most plants, though sometimes wanting. In the garden violet, viola 
tricolor , (Fig. 63, a, a,) the stipules are of that form called lyrate * 
pinnatifid , while the true leaf ( b ) is oblong and crenate. The most 
natural situation of the stipules is in pairs, one on each side of the 
base of the foot-stalk, as in the sweet pea ; some stipules fall off 
almost as soon as the leaves are expanded, but, in general, they re¬ 
main as long as the leaves. 
2d. Prickles arise from the bark; they are straight, hooked, or 
forked. They are usually found upon the stem, as in the rose ; but 
in some cases, they cover the petiole, as in the raspberry; in others, 
they are found upon the leaf or the calyx, and in some instances, 
upon the berry; as in the gooseberry. 
3d. Thorns are distinguished from prickles, by growing from the 
woody part of the plant, while the prickle proceeds only from the 
bark. On stripping the bark from the rose-bush, the prickles will 
come away with it; but let the same experiment be made with a 
thorn-bush, and although the bark may be separated, the thorn will 
still remain projecting from the wood. 
Fig. 64. in this draw¬ 
ing, you will 
observe the 
thorn, (a,) to 
remain on the 
stem, while the 
bark (b) has 
been peeled off. In the prickle (c) the whole appears separated from 
the plant. The thorns, in some plants, have been known to disap¬ 
pear by cultivation. The great Linnaeus imagined, that in such 
cases, the trees were divested of their natural ferocity, and became 
tame. We may smile at such a fanciful idea, but should remember 
that great men have their weaknesses; and that when persons be¬ 
come enthusiasts in any science, they are in danger of tracing anal¬ 
ogies or resemblances, which exist in their own minds, rather than 
Different kinds of appendages—Stipules—Prickles—Thorns—Thorns m some cases 
made to disappear. 
