FULL-GROWN PLANT AND ITS PARTS 63 
THE Form or LEAVES 
Stalked leaves and sessile leaves. Most leaves are 
green. Most green leaves are broad and thin. You 
have seen this by looking at different kinds of leaves. 
Have you noticed the shapes of leaves? Yes, of course. 
You see the larger number of them have a little stalk 
( petiole) where they are joined 
to the stem which holds out 
the broad part (blade). In 
some of the water-lilies the 
stalk is long and large. In 
many ferns the stalk is also 
large and is sometimes taken 
for the stem (Fig. 93). But 
in many other leaves there is 
no stalk, and the blade is 
seated on the stem; such 

leaves are sessile. In some 
plants the stem appears to 
: Fic. 93. Polypody fern showing 
STOW through the leaf, but m leaves and the rhizome or root- 
reality the leaf grows all round = 7% "#0? Pans sadergroun® 
the stem; sometimes there is one leaf only at one point 
on the stem, and in other cases two leaves which are op- 
posite have their bases grown together round the stem. 
Simple leaves and compound leaves. How many dit- 
ferent pieces are there in the blade of a leaf? Look at 
