28 CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. 
taining inside it the curved embryo, with large green folded 
cotyledons, within which again 1s a small quantity of muci- 
laginous (gummy) endosperm. 
Compare with this type any of the following: Malope, Hibiscus, or 
Abutilon, which are not infrequently to be found in gardens. 
Ribbon-wood (Plagianthus betulinus)—This plant grows to a tall 
tree, having small greenish-white dicecious flowers (without bracts), pro- 
duced in much-branched fragrant panicles. The ¢ flowers have narrow 
petals and a number of monadelphous stamens; the ¢ flowers have a 
single carpel (containing a single ovule), which ripens into a capsule 
dehiscing down one side. 
Houhere (Hoheria sp.).—Very abundant shrubs in many parts; 
easily recognised by their pretty white flowers, showing the malvaceous 
structure. 
Compare with these the Makomako, 
- or New Zealand Currant (Artstotelia race- 
mosa), Which differs in several respects. 
Note the exstipulate leaves, the small 
Fig. 82. Three-lobed axillary panicles of pink or rosy-red dic- 
petalof Aristotelia cious flowers, usually with 4 sepals and 4 
(mag.). petals, each of the latter split into three 
lobes, and placed on a short torus or 
prolongation of the receptacle: the ¢ 
flowers with 12 free stamens arranged 
in 4 groups of 8 each, their 2-celled 
anthers dehiscing by apical slits or pores, 
and no pistil; the ? flowers often with 
a few more or less perfect stamens and 
Fig. 33. Anther of a small 4-celled ovary. Hach cell con- 
Aristotea; de- tains 2 small ovules, and the whole pistil 
hiscing by slits at : 7 a 
the apex (mag). "Pens to a black berry. 
STRUCTURE AND ‘TERMINOLOGY OF LEAVES. 
Only such forms of leaves as have been met with in the 
plants examined have hitherto been described. It will now 
be advisable to try to give you a clearer idea of the structure 
of leaves and of the different terms used in their description, 
so that these terms may be correctly applied in future. In 
the first place it is necessary to have some exact notion of 
what a leaf is, and what its use or function is. The term in 
its common acceptation is applied to the flattened green out- 
growths of the stem which are chiefly concerned in the pro- 
cesses of respiration and assimilation of food-materials, but in 
the wider sense it is applied by the botanist to all leaf-like 
organs which are produced on the stem itself, exclusive of 
branches, which are stem-organs, and prickles, hairs, &c., 
which are outgrowths of the epidermis or outer skin. Thus 
the scales which form the bulb of a common onion are leaves, 
80 are the scales which cover the leaf-buds of many plants 1D 
