Foliation

“ In many of these orthogneisses the foliation is primitive, being an original character of the rock which was produced either by fluxion movements in a highly viscous, semi-solid mass injected at great pressure into the surrounding strata, or by folding stresses acting immediately after consolidation. ”

“ The majesty of a roof is never, I think, so great, as when the eye can pass undisturbed over the course of all its curvatures, and trace the dying of the shadows along its smooth and sweeping vaults. And I would rather, myself, have a plain ridged Gothic vault, with all its rough stones visible, to keep the sleet and wind out of a cathedral aisle, than all the fanning and pendanting and foliation that ever bewildered Tudor weight. But mosaic or fresco may of course be used as far as we can afford or obtain them; for these do not break the curvature. ”

“ Mica-schists are very common in regions of Archean rocks accompanying gneisses, crystalline limestones and other schists. Some have a flat banding yielding smooth slabs; others are crumpled or contorted with undulating foliation. Occasionally the quartz forms elliptical lenticles or “eyes.” In some cases mica composes nearly the whole of the rock, in others quartz preponderates so that they approach quartz-schists and quartzites. ”

“ The blossoming of plants is easily watched, but their foliation and budding ought not to be neglected. Having been prevented, by various causes, from keeping an exact record of the progress of vegetation near New-York in 1817, I submit an accurate journal which I had kept the year before, at Philadelphia, in which I hope that some interesting facts may be noticed. ”

“ Median floral prolification.—This is of more frequent occurrence than the preceding. The prolonged axis is more frequently terminated by a flower-bud than by a leaf-bud, though it must be remarked, that the lengthened and protruded stem frequently bears leaves upon its sides, even if it terminate in a flower, and thus the new growth partakes of a mixed leafy and floral nature. Instances of this kind have long been familiar to observers, and have always excited attention from the singularity of their appearance. ”

“ Folium, the Leaf, is a very general, but not universal, organ of vegetables, of an expanded form, presenting a much greater surface to the atmosphere than all the other parts of the plant together. Its colour is almost universally green, its internal substance pulpy and vascular, sometimes very succulent, and its upper and under surfaces commonly differ in hue, as well as in kind or degree of roughness.
Leaves are eminently ornamental to plants from their pleasing colour, and the infinite variety as well as elegance of their forms. ”

“ In these the axis remains short, nearly as it is in the bud; the leaves therefore remain close together in sets or circles; the outer ones, those of the calyx, generally partake more or less of the character of foliage; the next set are more delicate, and form the corolla, while the rest, the stamens and pistils, appear under forms very different from those of ordinary leaves, and are concerned in the production of seed. This view gives to Botany an interest which one who merely notices the shape and counts the parts of blossoms, without understanding their plan, has no conception of. ”

“ Foliage grows in the hollows of the mouldings, and sometimes, as at Chartres, even the shafts, as they tower into the gloom, end in half-opened leaves, suggestive of spring, of hope, and of aspiration. ”

“ As explained in the section on Inflorescence, flowers arise from the same places as branches, and from no other; flower-buds, like leaf-buds, appear either on the summit of a stem, that is, as a terminal bud, or in the axil of a leaf, as an axillary bud. And, as the plan of a symmetrical flower shows, the arrangement of the parts on their axis or receptacle is that of leaves upon the stem.
245. That the sepals and petals are of the nature of leaves is evident from their appearance; they are commonly called the leaves of the flower. ”

“ Coloring matter from the newly opened bolls, or from the soil, is washed into the floss by the rain, and while such spots or stains may be bleached out by the sun, the lustrous bloom never returns. Frost will make permanent tinges or stains, and the wind will frequently wrap the pendulous locks of fibre-covered seed about the stems of the plant or tangle them up in the leaves. ”

“ In time a single plant, if not crowded, will make a mound of green foliage, looking as if an inverted bushel basket were shingled with broad overlapping foliage, above which, in August, spring pure white, sweet-scented lily-like flowers. ”

“ Thus the male inflorescences are produced first—a common occurrence in forest trees.
Since the inflorescences arise from the axils of leaves, their arrangement accords with the phyllotaxis of the tree—i.e., 2⁄5—so far as it goes. It should be borne in mind that the bud-scales are stipules.
The male inflorescences hang down from between the bud-scales as simple catkin-like spikes, each bearing about a dozen flowers. Each male flower springs
Fig. 31.—A sprig of oak in May, with the pendent male catkin below, and the minute spikes of female flowers just showing above. (Th. Hartig.) ”

“ Folia composita, compound leaves, consist of two or any greater number of foliola, leaflets, connected by a common footstalk.
Folium articiilatum, a jointed leaf, is when one leaflet, or pair of leaflets, grows out of the summit of another, with a sort of joint, as in Fagara tragodes, Jacq. Amer., t. 14. Digitatum, digitate or fingered, when several leaflets proceed from the summit of a common foot-stalk, as Potentilla verna, Engl. Bot. t., reptans, t., and Alchemilla alpina, t..
Binatum, binate, is a fingered leaf consisting of only two leaflets, as in Zygophyllum, Curt. Mag. t.. ”

“ Even without the flowers, it is valuable to add character and cast to a foliage mass. The foliage is not attacked by insects or fungi, but remains green and glossy throughout the year. The fruit is also very large and showy, and persists on bushes well through the winter. Some of the wild Roses are also very excellent for mixing into foliage masses, but, as a rule, their foliage characteristics are rather weak, and they are liable to be attacked by thrips. ”

“ Those living surfaces of the plant which are most exposed to light are green or highly coloured. The root tends to grow downward, but the stem tends to grow upward toward light [16] and air. The plant is anchored or fixed in the soil by the roots. Plants have been called “earth parasites.”
The Foliage Part.—The leaves precede the flowers in point of time or life of the plant. The flowers always precede the fruits and seeds. Many plants die when the seeds have matured. The whole mass of leaves of any plant or any branch is known as its foliage. ”

“ At the eighth or ninth pair we come upon a tiny, silky leaf, directly between the pair of scales, and, removing these, another larger leaf, opposite the first but higher up on the rudimentary stem, and so on, with the rest of the bud. There are five or more leaves, each placed between a pair of scales. Our knowledge of the parts of a leaf shows us at once that the scales must be modified stipules, and that therefore they must be in pairs. [1] Other examples of scales homologous with stipules are the American Elm, Tulip-tree, Poplar and Magnolia. ”

“ Passion Flower.—Cuttings of the young shoots strike readily in sand under glass. The plant likes a good loamy soil mixed with peat. A sheltered position with a south or south-western aspect should be assigned those grown out of doors, and the root should be well protected in winter. The flowers are borne on seasoned growth of the current year: this fact must be considered when pruning the plants. During the hot months the roots require a copious supply of water, and the foliage should be syringed freely. ”

“ All our foliage alike is, strictly speaking, annual, and all alike deciduous; but while oaks and beeches shed their dead leaves in our climate in autumn, pines, firs, and hollies retain theirs on the tree till the succeeding spring, and then let them drop quietly off, unperceived amid the pale glory of the fresh green foliage. The larch is a well-known example of a conifer which behaves in this respect like the oak or the birch; while its ally, the spruce-fir, keeps on the dead or dying leaves through the winter months, and then shuffles them off unobtrusively as the new foliage develops. ”

“ I use broken bones for drainage, a mixture of leaf mold and sand for soil, plant one bulb in a keg, and after the weather becomes warm I place the kegs on a bench which stands in an angle of the house, said angle being open to the north and east and gets the sun till 11 o'clock. I keep the soil moist and shower the leaves when I think they need it. And those plants do grow and bloom, the foliage is immense, some of the leaves measuring 8 by 12 or 14 inches, and the blossoms measure from 2 to 4 inches across. I have counted fifteen such blossoms on one plant at one time. ”

“ The foliage is evergreen, and of a dark colour. When the plant is once established it produces flowers in great abundance. The plants of the white-flowered variety should be protected with a hand-light when the flower-buds appear, in order to preserve the blossoms pure and clean. Any deeply-dug rich garden soil suits it, and it is most at home under the shade of a tree. It prefers a sheltered situation, and during the summer months a mulching of litter and an occasional watering will be beneficial. Readily increased by division in spring or seed. Height, 1 ft. ”

“ The foliage has a slightly silvery tone, and the plant continues to grow fresh and vigorously till late in autumn.{205} It is well suited for forming rich masses of foliage, not so tall, however, as those formed by such things as Ricinus or Ferdinanda. It is freely propagated by cuttings taken from old plants kept in a cool stove, greenhouse, or pit during the winter months, and placed in heat to afford cuttings freely in early spring. ”

“ The overshading foliage of other things will do them no harm, as it will be only for a season. The position should be moist and somewhat sheltered from high winds, or the stout and tender flower stems will be snapped off. The soil should be of a vegetable character and retentive of moisture. My specimens are grown in leaf soil and loam, in a dip of small rockwork. All the kinds were planted that a large flat stone, which we had ready, would so fit to, or over, them as to secure their roots against drought. ”

“ Perennial flowers are generally propagated by layers, cuttings, offsets, suckers, and division of the root; for when raised from seed, many of the kinds do not blossom for several years. When propagated by layers, the earth which is pressed over the [Pg 261] pegged-down shoot, should not be kept too moist; as layers of herbaceous plants, particularly where the stem has been partly slit through, are very apt to rot. The same remark holds good as to cuttings; and they should generally have fewer leaves left on, than cuttings of trees and shrubs. ”

“ The handsome foliage and showy flower clusters make the mountain ashes a favorite group of little trees for border shrubberies and other ornamental planting. The foliage is almost fern-like in delicacy and it spreads in a whorl below the flower clusters in spring and the scarlet berry clusters in autumn. Far into the winter after the foliage has dropped the berries persist, supplying the birds with food, especially in snowy winters, when their need is greatest, and brightening the dull thickets of bare twigs on dreary days. ”

“ The condition of our land may be compared with that of a sturdy oak which has had one of its limbs torn away and its foliage blighted by a storm. Yet, if the roots grip the soil deep down, the sap of a single season will restore the verdure, and in a few years the dome of foliage will rise as shapely and imposing as ever. ”

“ It loves moisture rather than rich elemental food. In clay it finds the best constituents of its development—moisture, silex, lime and alumnia. So we say to those who love this queenly flower, if you would see the queen in all her glory, plant in a comparatively heavy soil, no manure, and reduce the stalks to one for each tuber, set the stakes firmly, to keep the stalks from swaying, and if the season is dry, give the bulbs a soaking with water every evening during the drought. ”

“ Cases of this kind often occur in large masses of foliage, which, if of the same general color, are apt in a painting to look monotonous and dull, unless great labor is bestowed in rendering the light and shade and the small differences of tint which actually exist in Nature. Under such circumstances the observer feels a certain relief at the presence of a few groups of foliage, which are decidedly paler in color than the surrounding masses, provided only there is a good excuse for their introduction. ”

“ The leaf has fallen from year to year; succeeding generations of trees have mouldered, spreading over the surface layer upon layer of decayed fibre, until the soil has acquired an astonishing depth and an unrivalled fertility. ”

“ Coarse herbaceous Type; foliage perishing late in summer. has latterly sunk into unmerited neglect, as from its luxuriance, the height of its stem (nearly 4 ft.) , and its fine, large, tawny-orange flowers, it well deserves a place among vigorous and striking subjects. It is thoroughly hardy and will thrive in almost any soil, but comes to greatest perfection in that which is deep, substantial, and moist, and in almost any position. Multiplied by dividing the tufts once in three or four years in autumn when the leaves are withered, or in spring. ”

“ Median prolification occurs frequently in double flowers; the axillary variety, on the other hand, is most common in flowers whose lateral organs have assumed more or less of the condition of leaves. The other coincident changes are alluded to elsewhere or do not present useful points of comparison, and may therefore be passed over.
Prolification of the inflorescence.—This consists in the formation of leaf-buds or of an undue number of flower-buds [Pg 103] on the inflorescence. ”