88 BUTLER: ALTERNATE BEARING IN THE APPLE 
of this season’s leader become transformed at once into spurs, 
and flower perfectly the following year.’* In the apple the 
development of flower buds on fruit branches is not commonly 
met with (see TABLE I) and is said to occur only in very fertile 
trees, or trees weakened by transplantation or soil exhaustion. 
The sprig (brindille) is a shoot about a foot or so in length which 
develops from two-year-old wood, from dormant eyes in older wood, 
or even from purse eyes. The sprig produces not infrequently a 
terminal flower-bud the year of its formation, thus behaving in a 
very similar manner to a leader that has become a fruit branch. 
In the apple the sprig is not an uncommon form of a fruit branch. 
The dart (dard) is a short, stout branch possessing smooth 
bark and growing out from the supporting branch at about a right 
angle, in its most typical form, that is, when derived from a spine. 
In its atypical form (PLATE 3, FIG. 1), the only one met with in 
the apple, it is simply a very short spine-like branch with smooth 
bark. The dart may atso develop from a purse and it is usually 
considered that the health and vigor of a spur depends on its 
having been derived from a dart or to the development of a dart 
or darts at some subsequent time (PLATE I, FIG. 1). In very fertile 
varieties of the apple the dart may produce a terminal flower-bud 
the year of its formation.t Usually, however, it only flowers the 
third year. When the dart forms a flower bud the first season of 
its growth the floral bud will be found nestling in a rosette of 
leaves, the apex of the dart having become immediately trans- 
.formed into a spur (lambourde). But if the floral bud is to form 
at the end of the second season then the apical bud will behave 
in the manner characteristic of the apical buds of a spur at the 
close of the first year’s vegetation, that is it will be subtended by 
a rosette of three or four leaves. 
The spur (lambourde) (PLATE 3, FIG. 2), is a short, thick, 
brittle branch with much wrinkled bark and breaking readily 
with a smooth fracture. The crests of the wrinkles are nodal 
points, the troughs internodal points. The axillary buds are very. 
inconspicuous and usually remain dormant though they can be 
* Forney, E. Taille des arbres fruitiers, Ed. 2, 1: 258. Paris. 1907. 
} Barry, P. Thefruit garden, 11. New York. 1851; Forney, loc. cil. 1: 254. 
ft Berne, A. Manuel d’arboriculture fruitiére, 69. Grenoble. 1898; De Mor-: 
tillet, M. P. Les meilleurs fruits 3: 376. Montpellier. 1868. 
