THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT fo 
numbers of these Lammas shoots every year, and the 
tendency to produce them seems to be capable of being 
inherited. 
The process of sprouting, or putting forth the shoot 
from the bud, is the same in all the cases. As the 
temperature and other conditions improve in the spring, 
for instance, the process of cell-division in the growing- 
point (and its derivatives, the young leaves, &c.) goes on 
rapidly, and the stores of nourishment already there and 
in the pith and other tissues close at hand are used up. 
This originates a series of currents of food materials set- 
ting slowly towards these centres of consumption from 
other parts of the tree, and very soon the numerous cells 
developed begin to absorb water with relatively enor- 
mous rapidity and vigour. This brings about two chief 
changes—the rapid elongation of the parts of the cone 
situated between the points of insertion of successive leaves 
(i.e. the internodes), and the almost simultaneous expan- 
sion of the hitherto small and folded leaves. Thus the 
rapid extension of the shoot is due almost entirely to the 
energetic absorption of water into cells for the most part 
already in existence. The chief changes which follow 
consist in the perfection of the structures—the develop- 
ment and thickening of vascular tissues, cell-walls, &e. 
‘This process of rapid extension does not occur in the 
internodes between the bud-scales, or, at any rate, to a 
slight degree only, just sufficient to enable the shoot to 
throw the scales off; hence the base of the outgrown 
shoot shows a number of small scars in a close spiral. 
