SCHOOL BOTANY 



Accessory Buds. — There are few phases of the plant 

 about which less seems to be known than the accessory or 

 supernumerary buds. These usually occur on either side of 

 the axillary or lateral buds or extend along the intermode for 

 some distance above them. The axillary bud is regarded as 

 the one nearest the center of the leaf scar, and this is un- 

 questionably correct for those cases in which the axillaiy and 

 accessory buds are arranged side by side, but when the buds 

 are superposed, that is, when several buds occur, one above 

 the other, the lowest bud, which in this case would be de- 

 fined as the axillary bud, is often the smallest and most in- 

 significant of the lot, and since it rarely grows it may well be 

 questioned whether this is a true axillary bud ; whether, in 

 fact, accessory buds may not occur on all four sides of the 

 axillary buds and this be one of them. Nobody doubts the oc- 

 currence of such buds on three sides of the lateral bads. A 

 further interesting feature of the accessory buds is the kind 

 of structure to which they give rise. In such plants r s bear 

 the accessory buds on both sides of the lateral bud they 'n- 

 variably give rise to flowers, as one may easily discover by 

 examining the peach or the golden bell (Forsyfliia). So far 

 as the writer is aware, there are no flowering plants that pro- 

 duce three twigs above a single leaf scar as woulo be ihe 

 case if such accessory buds formed leafy twigs as the lateral 

 buds do. But in the plants with superpose'd buds the case is 

 quite different. Here it is apparent that these buds seldom 

 if ever produce flowers. Not only this but more than one of 

 these buds may grow. One has only to search vigorous 

 young twigs of the walnut, butternut or Ptcrocarya to find 



56 



