and the repeal of the Sherman Law in 1893, threatened Leadville’s future. But the source of the gold of the old placers was found in 1892. From that year to 1899 the gold product rose from $262,692 to $2,183,332. From 1879 to 1900 the camp yielded $250,000,000 (as compared with $48,000,000 of gold and silver in five years from the Comstock, Nevada, lode; and $60,000,000 and 225,000 tons of lead, in fourteen years, from the Eureka, Nevada, mines). Before 1898 the production of zinc was unimportant, but in 1906 it was more valuable than that of silver and gold combined. This increased output is a result of the establishment of concentrating mills, in which the zinc content is raised from 18 or 20% in the raw ores to 25 or 45% in the concentrates. In 1904, per ton of Lake county ore, zinc was valued at $6.93, silver at $4.16, lead at $3.85, gold at $1.77 and copper at $.66. The copper mined at Leadville amounted to about one-third the total mined in the state in 1906. Iron and manganese have been produced here, and in 1906 Leadville was the only place in the United States known to have produced bismuth. There were two famous labour strikes in the “diggings” in 1879 and 1896. The latter attracted national attention; it lasted from the 19th of June 1896 to the 9th of March 1897, when the miners, being practically starved out, declared the strike off. There had been a riot on the 21st of September 1896 and militia guarded the mines for months afterwards. In January 1897 the mines on Carbonate Hill were flooded after the removal of their pumps. This strike closed many mines, which were not opened for several years. Leadville stocks are never on the exchange, and “flotation” and “promotion” have been almost unknown.
The ores of the Leadville District occur in a blue limestone formation overlaid by porphyry, and are in the form of heavy sulphides, containing copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc; oxides containing iron, manganese and small amounts of silver and lead; and siliceous ores, containing much silver and a little lead and gold. The best grade of ores usually consists of a mixture of sulphides, with some native gold. Nowhere have more wonderful advances in mining been apparent—in the size and character of furnaces and pumps; the development of local smelter supplies; the fall in the cost of coal, of explosives and other mine supplies; the development of railways and diminution of freight expenses; and the general improvement of economic and scientific methods—than at Leadville since 1880. The increase of output more than doubled from 1890 to 1900, and many ores once far too low in grade for working now yield sure profits. The Leadville smelters in 1900 had a capacity of 35,000 tons monthly; about as much more local ore being treated at Denver, Pueblo and other places.
See S. F. Emmons, Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colorado, monograph United States Geological Survey, vol. 12 (1886), and with J. D. Irving, The Downtown District of Leadville, Colorado, Bulletin 320, United States Geological Survey (1907), particularly for the discussion of the origin of the ores of the region.
LEAF (O. Eng. léaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. löf, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. λέπειν, to peel, strip), the name given in popular language to all the green expanded organs borne upon an axis, and so applied to similar objects, such as a thin sheet of metal, a hinged flap of a table, the page of a book, &c. Investigation has shown that many other parts of a plant which externally appear very different from ordinary leaves are, in their essential particulars, very similar to them, and are in fact their morphological equivalents. Such are the scales of a bulb, and the various parts of the flower, and assuming that the structure ordinarily termed a leaf is the typical form, these other structures were designated changed or metamorphosed leaves, a somewhat misleading interpretation. All structures morphologically equivalent with the leaf are now included under the general term phyllome (leaf-structure).
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| From Strasburger’s Lehrbuch der Botanik by permission of Gustav Fischer. |
| Fig. 1.—Apex of a shoot showing origin of leaves: f, leaf rudiment; g, rudiment of an axillary bud. |
Leaves are produced as lateral outgrowths of the stem in definite succession below the apex. This character, common to all leaves, distinguishes them from other organs. In the higher plants we can easily recognize the distinction between stem and leaf. Amongst the lower plants, however, it is found that a demarcation into stem and leaf is impossible, but that there is a structure which partakes of the characters of both—such is a thallus. The leaves always arise from the outer portion of the primary meristem of the plant, and the tissues of the leaf are continuous with those of the stem. Every leaf originates as a simple cellular papilla (fig. 1), which consists of a development from the cortical layers covered by epidermis; and as growth proceeds, the fibro-vascular bundles of the stem are continued outwards, and finally expand and terminate in the leaf. The increase in length of the leaf by growth at the apex is usually of a limited nature. In some ferns, however, there seems to be a provision for indefinite terminal growth, while in others this growth is periodically interrupted. It not unfrequently happens, especially amongst Monocotyledons, that after growth at the apex has ceased, it is continued at the base of the leaf, and in this way the length may be much increased. Amongst Dicotyledons this is very rare. In all cases the dimensions of the leaf are enlarged by interstitial growth of its parts.
The simplest leaf is found in some mosses, where it consists of a single layer of cells. The typical foliage leaf consists of several layers, and amongst vascular plants is distinguishable into an outer layer (epidermis) and a central tissue (parenchyma) with fibro-vascular bundles distributed Structure of leaves. through it.
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| Fig. 2.—Section of a Melon leaf, perpendicular to the surface. | |
| es, | Upper epidermis. |
| ei, | Lower epidermis. |
| p, | Hairs. |
| st, | Stomata. |
| ps, | Upper (palisade) layers of parenchymatous cells. |
| pi, | Lower (spongy) layers of parenchymatous cells. |
| m, | Air-spaces connected with stomata. |
| l, | Air-spaces between the loose cells in the spongy parenchyma. |
| fv, | Bundles of fibro-vascular tissue. |
The epidermis (fig. 2, es, ei), composed of cells more or less compressed, has usually a different structure and aspect on the two surfaces of the leaf. The cells of the epidermis are very closely united laterally and contain no green colouring matter (chlorophyll) except in the pair of cells—guard-cells—which bound the stomata. The outer wall, especially of the upper epidermis, has a tough outer layer or cuticle which renders it impervious to water. The epidermis is continuous except where stomata or spaces bounded by specialized cells communicate with intercellular spaces in the interior of the leaf. It is chiefly on the epidermis of the lower surface (fig. 2, ei) that stomata, st, are produced, and it is there also that hairs, p, usually occur. The lower epidermis is often of a dull or pale-green colour, soft and easily detached. The upper epidermis is frequently smooth and shining, and sometimes becomes very hard and dense. Many tropical plants present on the upper surface of their leaves several layers of compressed cells beneath the epidermis which serve for storage of water and are known as aqueous tissue. In leaves which float upon the surface of the water, as those of the water-lily, the upper epidermis alone possesses stomata.
The parenchyma of the leaf is the cellular tissue enclosed within the epidermis and surrounding the vessels (fig. 2, ps, pi). It is known as mesophyll, and is formed of two distinct series of cells, each containing the green chlorophyll-granules, but differing in form and arrangement. Below the epidermis of the upper side of the leaf there are one or two layers of cells, elongated at right angles to the leaf surface (fig. 2, ps), and applied so closely to each other as to leave
