Volume I Part 14 (1/2)

VI. THE VIRGULA.--The leafless flower-stem of an annual plant, not a gra.s.s, as of a primrose or dandelion 147

VII. THE FILUM.--The running stem of a creeping plant

/# It is not specified in the text for use; but will be necessary; so also, perhaps, the Stelechos, or stalk proper (26), the branched stem of an annual plant, not a gra.s.s; one cannot well talk of the Virga of hemlock. The 'Stolon'

is explained in its cla.s.sical sense at page 158, but I believe botanists use it otherwise. I shall have occasion to refer to, and complete its explanation, in speaking of bulbous plants.

VIII. THE CAUDEX.--The essentially ligneous and compact part of a stem 149

{243}

/# This equivocal word is not specified for use in the text, but I mean to keep it for the acc.u.mulated stems of inlaid plants, palms, and the like; for which otherwise we have no separate term.

IX. THE AVENA.--Not specified in the text at all; but it will be prettier than 'baculus,' which is that I had proposed, for the 'staff' of gra.s.ses.

See page 179.

/# These ten names are all that the student need remember; but he will find some interesting particulars respecting the following three, noticed in the text:--- #/

STIPS.--The origin of stipend, stupid, and stump 148

STIPULA.--The subtlest Latin term for straw 148

CAULIS (Kale).--The peculiar stem of branched eatable vegetables 149

CANNA.--Not noticed in the text; but likely to be sometimes useful for the stronger stems of gra.s.ses.

III. THE LEAF.

Derivation of word 26

The Latin form 'folium'41

The Greek form 'petalos' 42

Veins and ribs of leaves, to be usually summed under the term 'rib' 44

Chemistry of leaves 46 {244}

/# The nomenclature of the leaf consists, in botanical books, of little more than barbarous, and, for the general reader, totally useless attempts to describe their forms in Latin. But their forms are infinite and indescribable except by the pencil. I will give central types of form in the next volume of Proserpina; which, so that the reader sees and remembers, he may _call_ anything he likes. But it is necessary that names should be a.s.signed to certain cla.s.ses of leaves which are essentially different from each other in character and tissue, not merely in form. Of these the two main divisions have been already given: but I will now add the less important ones which yet require distinct names.

I. APOLLINE.--Typically represented by the laurel 51

II. ARETHUSAN.--Represented by the alisma 52

/# It ought to have been noticed that the character of serration, within reserved limits, is essential to an Apolline leaf, and absolutely refused by an Arethusan one.

III. DRYAD.--Of the ordinary leaf tissue, neither manifestly strong, nor admirably tender, but serviceably consistent, which we find generally to be the substance of the leaves of forest trees.