48 THE FLOWERING PLANT. 
duces a weakly terminal shoot, or it may, so to speak, be jostled 
out of existence, when a false dichotomy results. On the other 
hand, where the leaves are scattered, 7.e., placed singly on the 
nodes, the terminal bud may be replaced by the axillary bud 
of the last leaf. Take, for example, a well-grown shoot of 
elm. The current year’s growth may be recognised by its 
greenish colour and the presence of the ring of scars at its base. 
The end of the shoot is occupied by a bud, apparently terminal. 
It is really, however, situated in the axil of the last leaf, and at 
' its base, opposite the leaf, is a small scar, formed by the death 
of the terminal bud. Similarly, the current year’s shoot is itself 
developed from an axillary bud. Just below the ring of scars is 
a crescentic mark, showing where the corresponding leaf fell off. 
Opposite this is a little rounded projection, where last year’s 
terminal bud was attached. The same reasoning applies to still 
older parts. We have, in fact, to deal with a sympodium (p. 24), 
though the main branches are developed racemosely. The same 
remark applies to birch, beech, hazel, and other forms. It 
must be carefully noted that facts like these are not obvious. 
Very careful examination of shoots in different stages of growth is 
necessary to verify them. The definite yearly increase described 
above takes place chiefly in trees and shrubs with well-protected 
scaly buds. Cases like the elm, where the ends of the shoots 
perish, lead on to the numerous plants in which indefinite growth 
takes place in the summer, without formation of strong buds near 
the ends of the shoots, as a provision for the following year. 
Here (as, for example, in the rose), the later part of the annual 
growth perishes in autumn, and the axillary buds of the older 
part expand into leafy shoots the next spring. Owing to this, 
many shrubs branch very irregularly. A further stage is seen 
in perennial herbs, where all overground parts die down an- 
nually, and are succeeded by outgrowths from buds belonging 
to the underground portion of the stem. 
The statement made on p. 44, that corms and bulbs are thick- 
ened underground buds, will now be more clearly understood. 
The main corm or tuber produced ‘yearly (as well as the smaller 
ones) is an axillary bud. It may be taken as a general rule that 
where one of two correlated organs is much and rapidly enlarged, 
the other will be correspondingly reduced. Thus, in a corm, the 
stem is very much thickened, while the leaves are very small, 
and conversely for a bulb. Bulbils (p. 44) are axillary buds with 
small thickened leaves. 
Lateral buds, as we have seen, are typically axillary, and it 
sometimes happens that more than one bud is produced in an 
axil. These accessory buds may be placed side by side or one 
