Layers and slips are not the only operations in which branches are employed for the purpose of multiplication. There is another, the most important of all in garden operations, namely, grating, of _ which we have already said a few words in connection with the ;

BOUGHS AND BRANCHES. 5 |

bud. Its object is to attach one vegetable to another, which is to

Fig 83.—Subjects for approach @rafting.

Fig. 85.—Cleft grafting.

Fig. 84.—Approuch grafting. sustain and furnish matter for its sustenance; to nurse it, in short. We sometimes see in forests certain trees, particularly the Hornbeam, in which a branch of one is firmly united to a neighbouring tree of the same species. This process, which in this case 1s a natural occurrence, is practised artificially to a great extent in gardening. The operator cuts a corresponding slice of bark from two trees, brings the two equal places into. contact, and lashes them firmly together with cord, which is again covered with some sort of clay to keep the wound moist until a junction has taken place. This is approach grafting. Fig. 83 shows the manner of preparing the

two subjects intended for approach grafting. Fig. 84 exhibits two subjects firmly attached by means of ligatures. In cleft grafting the trunk of a tree is cut through horizontally, and a vertical cleft is made in its centre some inches deep. Into this cleft the branch of a graft with several buds, and cut to the shape of the cleft, is inserted, which is closely in contact with the sides of the cleft. The cleft is then covered with mortar of some kind, and bound firmly together by means of cord. In Fig 85 we have these successive operations represented. Cleft grafting is — operated successfully both on the trunks and roots of trees. By its means the horticulturist changes with advantage the products of trees of the same species, making the head bear fruit and flowers other than those belonging to the principal stem. In fact, they. restore the,vigour and sweetness of youth to a tree already aged and exhausted.

Prostrate pi t f Marsh Pennywort ( Hyd tyl S

Fig. 86.—Aeriel and submerged | {the Arrow-head (Sagittaria).

Or LEAVEs.

We have considered buds, which enclose in their green envelope the promises of spring. At the hour marked by awakening nature this cradle of the leafy organs will open itself step by step, and in a short time the gardens, the fields, and the woods will be clothed with a dazzling down of verdure.

The season of the renaissance of leaves is that which exercises the softest influence on the human soul, when the new vegetation begins to decorate the fields, and gives to the boughs and branches, long denuded by the hoar-frost, that cloud of vernal green so vivid and.dazzling which brings with it that delicious impression which no animated beings can deny themselves. The reviving verdure is the forerunner of fine days, the first adornments of the fields announcing a brilliant cortege of flowers, a plentiful tribute of savoury fruits. Renovated nature offers at once to the eyes and J the mind a most seducing picture, and what pleasure do we not

Fig. 86.—Aeriel and submerged | {the Arrow-head (Sagittaria).

enjoy in the shade and shelter of the forest in’ the burning days of summer. If the leaves have not the dazzling and variegated colours of the flowers of our fields or parterres, their green surface and variegated shades serve to repose the eye and preserve the sight. The movement of the leaves as they gracefully wave to every breath of wind, serves also to animate the landscape, and gives it a kind of existence. But the functions of the leaves are not limited to mere ornament and shade. Nature, as we shall see, assigns to them infinitely more important offices, both to surrounding nature and to the tree of which they form a part. They purify the surrounding atmosphere, restoring it to its normal condition, rendering it healthy and salubrious when vitiated by the breath of animals. The Creator has in this, as in all His works, united decorative elegance and. beauty of form with direct and immediate utility.:

Leaves are borne upon the stem and branch, and nothing ise more varied than the forms they assume. In Sagittaria, Fig. 87, 3 they resemble an arrow or spear-head, whence its name. 4n the — Juniper bush (Juniperus communis), Fig. 88, its spines are like 80 of the certain as in leaves, false have Others needles. many Gladiolus, which issue from a sheath like the Jris. Leaves m their a turn affect the form of a disk, as in the Nasturtium, Fig. 89, or the form of a spatula in the Daisy (Scabiosa atropurpurea), Fig. 90.

Some leaves have forms so strange that botanists have bee? puzzled to describe them. For example, in Vepenthes distillatoria,

Fig. 91, the leaves terminate in a most singular manner; forming a sort of urn or vase, surmounted by a cover, which opens and shuts as occasion requires. This vessel is suspended at the extremity — of a thread-like appendage to a winged petiole, which would seem to be altogether unfit to support it. In a recent work we find the following facts recorded in reference to the leaves of the Nepenthes — distillatoria. Aw officer of marines writes as follows:—“ Three days after my arrival at Madagascar, I lost myself during @ short = excursion into the interior, and was overtaken with an excessiV@ lassitude, accompanied with a devouring thirst. After long , walk I was on the point of yielding to despair, when I perceived 4 close to me, suspended to leaves, some small vases, somewhat

Fig. 89.

Fig. 88.

Fig 91.

Fig. 90.

Fig. 87.

Fig. 92.

Fig. 87.—Arrow-head. Fig. 88.—Juniper. Fig. 89.—Nasturtium. Fig. 90.—Daisy.

Fig. 91.—Nepenthes. Fig. 92.—Catcutty.

those used on board to preserve fresh water. I began to think I was under one of those hallucinations by which the sick are visited in fever when the refreshing draught seems to fly from their ~ parched lips. I approached, however, with some hesitation, threw a rapid glance at the pitchers: judge of my happiness when I found them filled with a pure and transparent liquid. The draught I partook gave me the best idea I have realised of the nectar served at the table of the gods.”

To pursue our’ subject, however. In the Sarracenias a number Se of the leaves are long and funnel- Am

SS dee: shaped, somewhat like a long p. 4 horn or trumpet, as in Fig. 93; while in.the Catchfly (Dionea),

Fig. 92, the leaves are terminated by two rounded plates or with hairs on leaves furnished their outer edge. When touched these leaves close upon theit 7 victim, and become, as it were, a charnel house when thus reunited. species of the many Among described, plants which have been there are scarcely two whose leaves can be said to be perfectly alike. “These contrasts sur traveller,” says Au- prise the guste de St. Hillaire, “when, ee coun equinoctial in traversing sees, Win Fig. 93.—Leaves and stem of Sarracenia, tries,he finds himself surroun ed by thousands of forms which have among them all only one trait of resemblance—their elegance and grace,—when he sees the delicate foliage of the Mimosa, so sensitive to the touch, hangmg over the gigantic leaf of the Scitaminacea, and the ferns with their thousands of finely cut leaves growing upon the trunk of the | Eugenia, and mingling with Bromeliacea and Tillundsias, with their rigid and inflexible leaves.’ ‘:

But more than this, we do not find in nature any two leaves —

exactly alike. Sometimes the same plant maintains leaves having less resemblance to each other than those of two different species. The Paper Mulberry (Broussoneti#), Fig. 94, has at the same time heart-shaped and lobed leaves. In the garden Valerian the lower leaves are entire, and those at the summit are deeply notched. In the Ranunculus aquatilis, Fig. 95, the leaves, which vegetate in the

Fig. 94.—Branch of the Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera)y

water, are divided into thread-like expansions, so narrow that they Seem to be leaves reduced to their nervures, or skeleton, while those leaves which grow in the air are entire, and disk-like in form, and more or less notched. "When the common Arrow-head (Sagitaria) grows in brooks, its submerged leaves form long nibbons;when they grow on the banks of great ponds or tanks, the emerged leaves resemble those of the Arrow-heads, Fig. 86.

There is not less diversity in their length and breadth, than in their form. While some leaves are only half a line in length,

Fig. 95.—Ranunculus aquatilis. others attain the dimensions of five or six yards. Nor is their size always proportioned to the thickness of the stem which carries them. The leaves of a small plant, the Dock-leaf (Ruwmex), would cover many — hundred times the space occupied by the fascicled leaves of the Larch, an imposing mountain tree; and there is a thousand times less vegetable matter in the leaf of the Fir-tree or Cedar than in that of the Plantain, or Banana-tree. The leaf usually consists of two parts—@ stalk, or petiole, and the blade, or lamina. The petiole connects the leaf with the branch

Fig. 96. Paemage toegaa ofthe or stem, and is composed of a bundle of besa expanded fibres covered by an_ epidermls- When the petiole fails, as in the common Flax (Linum), Fig. 96, the leaf is said to be sessile. In such cases the leaves often partially

or entirely surround the stem, when they are said to be amplexical or semiamplexical. The leaf is simple when the limb consists of one piece either quite entire or variously indented, cleft or divided on the edge; and compound when it consists of one or more leaflets, each of which is jointed to the common petiole by intermediate little petioles, sometimes very short, and said to be petiolated. The leaf of the Lime-tree (Tilia), Fig. 97, is simple; that of the Robinia, or False Ac-cacia, Fig. 98, is compound.

It happens sometimes that the petiole is branching’ and bears petioles of the second or third order, upon which are inserted petiolules with their folioles. This occurs in Gleditschia tricanthus, Fig. 99, a highly ornamental group of trees, with branching thorns in © ~ some of the species. When } the division of leaves is carried further, the term decompound is made use of; the Hemlock (Conium maculatum), is said to be suupra-decompound. The limb of the leaf isoften continued | all round, and sufficiently large | to embrace it, as we see in the | Box-tree, the Iris, and some | other plants. The edge of the: limb of the leaf is generally Fig. 97.—Leaf of the Lime-tree. more or less serrated; according to the form and depth of these inequalities round the margin, the leaf is said to be dentate, crenale, serrate, lobed, and cloven.

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