32 



BUDS 



covered by the margins of the groove. When the leaf 

 falls off in autumn, the base remains as protection to 

 the bud (Fig. 23). 



36. Store of food. — In trees, the stems which bear the 

 buds are filled Avith abundant nourishment deposited the 

 summer before in the wood and in the bark. Subterranean 

 buds are supplied from thick roots, root stocks, or tubers, 

 charged with a great store of nourishment for their use. 

 (See Figs. 20, 47, 48.) 



37. Renewal of growth. — We see that the on-coming 

 of spring finds plants ready to resume their interrupted 

 activities, since new shoots are complete in the buds, and 

 food is at hand for their development. As soon as the 

 tide of warmth has fairly set in, therefore, vegetation 

 pushes forth vigorously from such buds, and clothes the 

 bare and lately frozen surface of the soil, as well as the 

 naked boughs of trees, with a covering of green, and often 

 with brilliant blossoms. Only a small part, and none of 

 the earliest, of this vegetation comes from seed. 



38. Nondevelopment of buds. — It never 

 happens that all the buds grow. If they 

 did, there might be as many branches in 

 any year as there were leaves the year 

 before. And of those which do begin to 

 grow, a large portion perish, sooner or later, 

 for want of nourishment or for want of 

 light. In the Hickory (Fig. 17), and most 

 other trees with large scaly buds, the ter- 

 minal bud is the strongest, and has the 

 advantage in growth ; and next in strength 

 are the upper axillary buds ; while the for- 

 mer continues the shoot of the last year, 

 some of the latter give rise to branches, 

 and the rest fail to grow. In the Lilac 

 (Fig. 24), the uppermost axillary buds are 

 stronger than the lower ; but the terminal 

 bud rarely appears at all ; in its place the 

 uppermost pair of axillar}^ buds grow, and so each stem branches every 

 year into two, — making a repeatedly two-forked ramification. 



39. Latent buds. — Axillary buds that do not grow at the proper 

 season, and especially those which make no appearance externally, 



24. Bads and branching of 

 Lilac. 



