; 126 
I have asked your teacher to bring to school to-day 
branches from the different trees which are looking so 
cold and lonely. It is nearly always possible to find 
the horse-chestnut, the maple, or the cherry; and we 
will talk especially about these branches. 
On your way to school, perhaps you pass every day a 
horse-chestnut tree; but its branches are so far above 
your heads that you may never have noticed that in 
winter the leafless twigs bear just such buds as you see 
in the picture (Fig. 129), and on the branch which is 
before you. 
The largest bud grows on top. This is where the 
beautiful flower cluster that comes out. in May lies 
hidden. 
The smaller buds that grow lower down the stem 
hold only leaves. You see that these buds grow in 
| pairs, one bud opposite another, and always above a 
4) sort of scar on the twig. This scar was made last 
y fall by the breaking-off of a leaf. 
Perhaps you fancy that these buds have only just 
made their appearance. 
If you have any such idea as that, you are quite 
wrong. Last summer, when the leaves were large and 
fresh, the little buds, that were not to unfold for nearly 
a year, began to form, growing somewhat larger as the 
~ weeks went by, and folding themselves tightly in the 
brown, leathery wrappings that were to keep them safe 
from the cold of winter. 
I should like you to pvll off these wrappings, and 
see how well the horse-che: tnut tree defends from cold 
its baby leaves. 
