VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
THE LEAVES OF PLANTS. 165 
Dickson’s Bride is, alas! inconstant—a good flower in all 
other respects; but it will bar, that is, the edging frequently 
strays half way down the petal. 
There is another light-edged flower of the purple class, 
Neville’s Mr. Barnard, which is very nearly a first-rate flower, 
but, like Lady Alice, is deficient of purity in the white; the 
edging is very light, but there is a sufficiency, and, as is the case 
with all of Neville’s flowers, there is plentjr of stuff. 
These are but occasional jottings ; but if approved of, you may 
expect a few more. 
Observator. 
Horticultural Essays, 
By the Members of the Regent's Park Gardeners Society. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. — THE LEAVES OF 
PLANTS. 
By Mr. T. Moore. 
On a previous occasion I read to you a few remarks on that 
part of Vegetable Physiology which treats of the elementary 
organs and the root and stem of plants; and I did so, with 
the view of making that paper preliminary to another on a 
series of important organs, viz. the leaves. In entering as I 
then did on a consideration of the elementary parts of plants, I 
had in view the abbreviation of the present paper, by referring 
you to what has been already said of these primary organs, 
which would equally refer to whatever form or modification of 
them we might be considering. 
Whilst the root has been pointed out as the descending axis 
of the plant, the stem has been noticed as the ascending axis, 
or that part whose tendency is to rear itself at least to the light, 
if not actually to assume a vertical position. Around this as¬ 
cending axis, as it becomes developed, other parts which are 
most important in the vegetable economy are developed also ; 
these are called the appendages to the axis, the principal of 
them being those parts known as the leaves, the bracts, and the 
flowers, which latter, containing within them the reproductive 
system, are followed by the fruit, or seed. All these appa- 
