CHAPTER X, 



APPENDAGES. 



There are various appendages to the parts already 

 enumerated, which are either organs of defence or 

 support. Sometimes they are evidently designed to 

 defend the leaf and tender shoot from cold. Some- 

 times they are a security from other injuries, but in a 

 few cases their uses in the economy of vegetation, re- 

 main to be ascertained. Their forms are much diver- 

 sified, and they all occasionally furnish discriminative 

 characters, to which the botanist often finds it neces- 

 sary to resort. 



1. BUDS. 



About mid-summer, the progress of vegetation seems 

 to be suspended, and for several days, the vital energies 

 of the tree, are exerted in the formation of buds. We 

 no longer observe the vigorous growth of spring, but 

 if we examine the young branches, we shall find the 

 newly formed buds at the base of the leafstalk, imme- 

 diately above the place of their insertion. After the 

 fall of the leaves, they are more conspicuous, and du- 

 ring the winter we may perceive a gradual enlarge- 

 ment, corresponding to the developement of the tender 

 germs which they enclose. Their situation like that 

 of the leaves, is either alternate or opposite, there 

 being in the former case a solitary bud at the summit 

 of the branch, and in the latter three terminal buds, 



