THE LEAVES are _amplexicaul_, and have a large sheath but no stipules; the blade is most frequently long, ligulate, or linear, entire, with parallel venation, the veins being straight or curved (Figs. 300, 309). Connecting the large number of veins which run longitudinally, there are as a rule only weak transverse ones. It is very rarely that other forms of leaves are found, such as cordate (Figs. 302, 312), or that the blade is branched, or the venation is, for example, pinnate or palmate (Figs. 225, 298); these deviations are especially found in the Araceæ, the Palms, the Scitamineæ (Fig. 308), the Dioscoreaceæ, and in several aquatic plants. The incisions in the Palm-leaf are derived by the splitting of an originally entire leaf. THE STRUCTURE OF THE FLOWER is generally as follows: Pr3 + 3, A3 + 3, G3, rarely S3 + P3 with the other members unchanged.[25] Instead of 3, the numbers 2 and 4 may occur; rarely others. In all these instances there are 5 whorls, which regularly alternate with one another, most frequently in the 3-merous flower, as in the diagram (Fig. 278). This diagram is found in the following orders: Liliaceæ, Convallariaceæ, Juncaceæ, Bromeliaceæ, Amaryllidaceæ, Dioscoreaceæ, Palmæ, some Araceæ, and in some small orders, and may be considered as the typical structure and also the starting point for the exceptional orders. The ovary in many Monocotyledons has many ovules, and the fruit becomes a many-seeded berry or capsule; this form is no doubt the oldest. In others the number of seeds becomes reduced to 1, and the fruit then becomes a cypsela, or a drupe (_e.g. Gramineæ_, _Cyperaceæ_, _Palmæ_, etc). [Illustration: FIG. 278.--Diagram of the ordinary, regular flower in the Monocotyledons: _s_ is the bract.] [Illustration: FIG. 279.--Diagram of _Iris_: _f_ the bracteole; in its axil is a shoot with its bracteole.] [Illustration: FIG. 280.--Diagram of _Orchis_: _l_ the lip; σ σ the two staminodes.]