42 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 
Branches get their characteristics to a considerable degree 
from the relative importance of their terminal buds. If these 
are mainly flower-buds, as is the case in the horse-chestnut, 
the tree is characterized by frequent forking, and has no 
long horizontal branches. 
If the terminal bud keeps the lead of the lateral ones, but 
the latter are numerous and most of them grow into slender 
twigs, the delicate spray of the elm and many birches is 
produced, Fig. 28. 
ic 
o- iN on st Git + 
. ; ae iy a ; 4 
I. II. 
Fic. 26. —I, An American Elm with Deliquescent Trunk. II, Cottonwood 
Poplars with Excurrent Trunks. 
The general effect of the branching depends much upon 
the angle which each branch or twig forms with that one 
from which it springs. The angle may be quite acute, as in 
the birch; or more nearly a right angle, as in the ash, Fig. 24. 
It is these differences that help to give to leafless woods 
in winter their unending variety and beauty. 
64. Indefinite Annual Growth. — In most of the forest 
trees, and in the larger shrubs, the wood of the branches is 
matured and fully developed during the summer, and pro- 
