VIII spring and its Studies 155 



say the thermometer indicates no change. But what is 

 true of the Hving seeds would for a short time be true also 

 of flower-heads or of opening buds. 



Buds. — We have spoken of seedlings as characteristic of 

 spring, and to a certain extent this may be said of buds 

 also. The bud is to the branch on which it grows what the 

 seed is to the entire plant. And just as most seeds in tem- 

 perate countries are formed during summer, are scattered in 

 autumn, lie dormant throughout the winter, and begin to 

 grow in spring, so most buds are well formed by autumn, 

 remain quiescent within their protective scales during winter, 

 and burst forth in spring into twigs and leaves. It is this 

 unfolding of the bud which is characteristic of spring- 

 time. 



But let us seek to gain a more precise conception of 

 what a bud is. Every one is familiar with the appearance 

 of a split cabbage : in the centre there is a portion of stem 

 tapering to its growing point ; around this, springing from 

 different levels, are many layers of crowded crumpled 

 leaves covering the growing point in overlapping layer after 

 layer. Now a cabbage is an exaggerated bud, or, to put 

 it in another way, every bud is a sort of incipient cabbage. 



Going back to the seed, we find in the plumule and the 

 minute leaves which often lie around its tip, the primeval 

 bud, a rudiment of the stem and its appendages. We see 

 the same thing at a later stage in the growing point of the 

 stem ; there is a central continuation of the axis, and around 

 this are several tiers, or rather spirals — in technical lan- 

 guage, ivhorls — of young leaves. 



Very frequently among Monocotyledons (plants like 

 grasses, liHes, and orchids) the bud which forms the apex 

 of the stem alone develops, and thus we have the un- 

 branched stems of palms (fig. 7). But in most Dicotyledons 

 (the majority of flowering plants) the numerous buds, which 



