“…Juvenile leaves are usually smaller and simpler than their adult counterparts and may differ in many other respects as well. For example, juvenile maize leaves are not only shorter and narrower than adult leaves, but they have epicuticular waxes not present on adult leaves, their epidermal cells are of different shapes than those of adult leaves, and they lack the hairs present on adult leaves (Poethig, Although juvenile leaves were initially thought to be developmentally arrested forms of adult leaves (Goebel, 1900), comparative developmental analyses of the two leaf types in severa1 species have demonstrated that juvenile leaf primordia are usually smaller and morphologically distinct from their adult counterparts at, or shortly after, inception (Foster, 1935;Kaplan, 1973Kaplan, , 1980Franck, 1976). The transition from the juvenile to the adult phase of shoot development is also marked by the transformation of the shoot apical meristem to a larger, morphologically distinct adult form (Abbe et al, 1941;Stein and Fosket, 1969;Kaplan, 1973;Franck, 1976;Greyson et al, 1982), and this correlation has led many authors to the view that juvenile versus adult leaf identity is determined at inception by the developmental state of the meristem itself.…”