26 ANNUAL GROWTHS RECORDED 



CHAPTER II. 



THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TREES MAY BE ADVAN- 

 TAGEOUSLY STUDIED BY A CAREFUL EXAMINATION OF THE 

 MARKS LEFT BY NATURE ON THEIR YOUNG BRANCHES THE 

 GROWTHS MADE BY THE TREE DURING THE FORMER YEARS OF 

 ITS LIFE HAVING BEEN THERE ACCURATELY RECORDED. 



EVERY part of a tree, whether it be a branch, shoot, or 

 leaf, represents exactly the organic condition of the tree 

 during the earlier periods of its life, and a certain stage of 

 development through which the entire tree itself has al- 

 ready passed. For it is plain from the facts mentioned in 

 Chapter I, that the tree was, at the commencement of the 

 first year of its life a single leaf, and at its close a green her- 

 baceous shoot, exactly like those annual growths which it 

 now makes at the sides and extremities of its branches. In 

 the spring of the second year, the buds formed by the leaves 

 of the first year at the sides and summit of the first year's 

 growth or shoot, developed into new growths or shoots, 

 which were constructed after precisely the same pattern. 

 They presented, in autumn, when defoliated, precisely the 

 same external appearances, having side and terminal buds, 

 and the same peculiar form of leaf-scar. We are, therefore, 

 necessarily led to regard them as only a repetition of the 

 first year's shoot. For as the leaf is a unit, through repe- 

 tition of which the first year's shoot is formed, so also is the 

 first year's shoot itself a unit, but of a higher and more com- 

 plex character, through repetition of which the branches, 

 and ultimately the entire tree itself is constructed. The 

 whole is therefore represented in each of its parts ; and if 

 we take the terminal branches of the tree and study them 

 carefully, we shall obtain clear and truthful views, not only 

 of the condition of the tree during the first years of its life, 



