Ill] 



SUPPRESSION OF BUDS 



37 



It frequently happens, moreover, that only a certain 

 number of the buds formed come to development owing 

 to the struggle for existence due to their competition for 

 nutriment. A rapidly growing branch may use up so 

 much material, and so divert the flow of water and food- 

 materials to its own leaves and buds, that neighbouring 

 buds are starved out as it were, and either die off alto- 

 gether and are suppressed, or remain dormant and un- 

 developed for a longer or shorter time, and thus another 

 common cause of irregularity of branching is introduced. 

 Examples occur in the Lilac (Fig. 12) and Horse-chestnut, 

 where the terminal bud is often suppressed in this way 

 and two lateral opposite buds just below continue the 

 growth as if the stem was forked, or the terminal bud 



Fig. 12. Lilac. Figure to the left shows the reduced terminal bud 

 and the two large lateral buds: that to the right shows an enlarged 

 vertical section of the same (Wo). 



grows on while one of the laterals buds is starved, or 

 grows more slowly, or both suffer retardation, or even 

 destruction, with permanent effect on the regularity of 

 the branching. 



When new buds or shoots are developed out of their 

 proper order, we have adventitious as opposed to normal 

 branching, a common phenomenon in cases of injury or of 



