72, THE OAK 
CHAPTER VI 
THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT (continued) 
Tur Bups AND LEAVES 
THE buds of the oak—those in the leaf-axils as well as 
those at the tips of the young shoots—are characteris- 
tically short and broad ovoid bodies, consisting of nume- 
rous overlapping brown scales covered with short, silky 
hairs, especially at the margins (fig. 19). These scales are 
really the stipules of arrested leaves, as is shown by the 
proper leaf-blades being developed as well under certain 
circumstances, such as when nutritive materials are 
directed to the young buds. The same morphological 
fact is also shown by the position of the inflorescences 
and young leaves higher up in the bud, for they spring 
from between the scales, and not from their axils proper 
(see fig.32). It isof the highest importance to understand 
that a bud is simply the young state of a shoot, and that 
it consists of the growing-point of the shoot enveloped 
by closely-folded leaf structures. In the oak the buds 
are already formed before the end of June, and on 
looking closely into the axils of the leaves on the 
