10. The natives love to build their temples in the intervals left between these roots of the wild fig-tree. A famous banyan-tree on the Nerbuddah is said by Professor Forbes to have three hundred large and three thousand smaller aerial roots. It is capable of sheltering thousands of men, and thus forms one of the marvels of the vegetable world. It is, in short, a forest within a forest.

11. Roots constantly endeavor to bury themselves in the earth. They seem to shun the light of day; and this tendency is to be remarked from the very first moment when the root shows itself in the seed. It is a tendency so decided, and appears so inherent in the life of all vegetables, that if we reverse a germinating seed, placing it with the root upwards, the root and the stem will twist round of themselves, the stem will stretch upwards, and the root will bury itself in the ground.

FIGUIER. Adapted.

13. THE IVY GREEN.

Оn, a dainty plant is the ivy green,
That creepeth o'er ruins old!

On right choice food are his meals, I ween,1

In his cell so lone and cold.

The walls must be crumbled, the stones decayed,
To pleasure his dainty whim;

And the mouldering dust that years have made
Is a merry meal for him.

Creeping where no life is seen,

A rare old plant is the ivy green.
1 Ween, think.

Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,
And a stanch old heart has he;

How closely he twineth, how tight he clings
To his friend, the huge oak-tree !
And slyly he traileth along the ground,
And his leaves he gently waves;
And he joyously twines and hugs around
The rich mold of dead men's graves.
Creeping where grim death has been,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.

Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed,
And nations have scattered been;
But the stout old ivy shall never fade
From its hale and hearty green.
The brave old plant in its lonely days
Shall fatten on the past;

For the stateliest building man can raise
Is the ivy's food at last.

Creeping on where time has been,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.

CHARLES DICKENS.

14.- SHAPES OF LEAVES.

PART I.

con-vex'i-ty, state of being rounded.
coun'ter-part, a thing corresponding
to another thing.
[lines.
cur-vi-lin'e-ar, bounded by curved
has'tate, shaped like the head of a
spear or halberd.

|in-den-tă'tion, a notch. [divisione lobed, having a rounded projection or o'vate, having the shape of a section of an egg.

scalloped [-lopt], having the edge cut with segments of circles.

1. By far the greater number of plants have leaves of an oval shape, and we have only to go through our forests

and gardens to see them on every hand. Exceedingly varied are they indeed, from very narrow to very broad oval, some with toothed, some with smooth edges, and some even deeply notched; and yet to such an extent does this tendency toward a rounded form prevail, that there seems scarcely a plant in whose leaves a trace of the oval may not be found.

2. The apple-tree gives us a good example of an oval leaf; and an immense number of plants have leaves resembling it in shape. In many plants the leaves are almost the very counterpart of those of the apple-tree; in others they are narrower and narrower, till we come to very slender blades like those of the grasses; and then, beyond still, to the needle-like leaves of the pines. On the other hand, plants are to be found with leaves broader than the apple-leaf, and so on, rounder and rounder, until we reach such plants as the nasturtium and the water-lily, whose leaves are almost as round as circles.

LEAF OF APPLE.

3. There are certainly to be met with most remark

able departures from the oval shape, and we need but refer to such leaves as those of the buckwheat, to find that roundness seems to be entirely absent.

This style of leaf, of which there are many variations, is apparently built on the model of the heart-shaped leaf, of which the morning-glory affords a familiar example. It will be noted, however, that instead of the curvilinear flow of outline, in which a tendency to oval roundness is plainly visible, the hastate leaf of the buckwheat is angular throughout.

4. Another marked characteristic of the generality of leaves is that they terminate in a point, either sharp to extreme slenderness, or blunt to broad roundness; for even in a circular leaf there is one point which is its extremity, and to which the margin from either side approaches by a convexity. To this pointedness of leaves the exceptions are exceedingly rare. A plant of our own country the magnificent tulip-tree of the forests-pre

LEAF OF TULIP-TREE,

sents, perhaps, the most extraordinary of all.

5. Now this leaf comes out of a bud-case which is actually oval. The young leaf is folded double inside of its bud-case; and, besides, its sinall stalk is bent over so as to bring the little leaf to hold its end downwards. We can see this curious arrangement very well just after the bud has opened and the young leaf has come out. However, it soon straightens up, holds its little head aloft, and looks like a pretty little flag. After this it spreads apart into the full leaf, and stands up like a banner. If the bud be held up to the light, the young leaf can be seen nicely folded up inside. with its head snugly bent down. There is nothing

prettier or more curious to be seen in the woods than the young buds of the tulip-trees when they are about to open, as

EARLY LEAF-BUD

well as after they have unfurled
their little flags; and all summer
long, even from earliest spring,
the tulip-trees are continually
unfolding buds.

1

6. There are leaves broader above than below, and some, instead of ending in a point, have a notch or indentation of some

OF TULIP-TREE. sort. Oak-trees give us many

fine and varied samples of notched and lobed leaves. And yet the leaf of the chestnut-oak is not at all notched, being

CHESTNUT OAK LEAF

PIN-OAK LEAF.

BUR OAK LEAF.

simply ovate, pointed, and toothed. The leaves of the bur and the pin oaks, on the contrary, are lobed and

1 Tulip-trees are often and wrongly called poplar, from which trees they are quite different. The leaves of the poplars are not at all truncated, but are lobed and notched, and end in a point.