Crossword-Solution: PETIOLE 7 letters, 12 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 9

Axle.] (Bot.) The angle or point of divergence between the upper side of a branch, leaf, or petiole, and the stem or branch from which it springs.

With two young leaves clasping two twigs, with the clasping portions thickened] The young leaves spontaneously and gradually change their position: when first developed the petioles are upturned and parallel to the stem; they then slowly bend downwards, remaining for a short time at right angles to the stem, and then become so much arched downwards that the blade of the leaf points to the ground with its tip curled inwards, so that the whole petiole and leaf together form a hook.

When a petiole has clasped a twig, it undergoes some remarkable changes, which may be observed with the other species, but in a less strongly marked manner, and will here be described once for all.

The clasped petiole in the course of two or three days swells greatly, and ultimately becomes nearly twice as thick as the opposite one which has clasped nothing.

When thin transverse slices of the two are placed under the microscope their difference is conspicuous: the side of the petiole which has been in contact with the support, is formed of a layer of colourless cells with their longer axes directed from the centre, and these are very much larger than the corresponding cells in the opposite or unchanged petiole; the central cells, also, are in some degree enlarged, and the whole is much indurated.