ON THE YOUNG BARK. 29 



flowers too leave their traces, either in the form of 

 withered flower-stems, or a peculiar mark, which con- 

 tinues to be recognized up to a certain time. "Where the 

 inflorescence is axillary, as in the Ash, the flower-scar is 

 situated just above the leaf-scar, and cannot fail to be 

 readily recognized ; and thus the past history of the de- 

 velopment of the flowers is recorded on the bark as well 

 as the rate of growth and the number of leaves. 



The specific peculiarities of trees manifest themselves in 

 the smallest details of their architecture, so that the least 

 bud-trace, leaf, or flower-scar, suffices by the peculiarity of 

 its form to enable us to recognize the species of tree to 

 which it belongs, and of which it is characteristic. 



To render the principal of these researches clearly un- 

 derstood, we have selected the upper part of one of the 

 branches of the purple beech (Fagus pupurea), which we 

 have had carefully drawn from an ambrotype, so that our 

 engraving is perfectly reliable, and presents a true and 

 faithful copy of the original branch. "We have also con- 

 structed a biological table, in which we have exhibited 

 numerically the different growths made by the primary 

 axis and its branches, and the number of leaves and buds 

 annually developed. 



By looking at the engraving, the reader will see that the 

 main stem or primary axis of the branch has developed ten 

 secondary axes or branches. The growth, number of 

 leaves and shoots, or in other words, the history of the de- 

 velopment of each of these ten secondary axes or branches 

 has been also registered in the table, in the same way as 

 the annual progress in vegetation made by the primary 

 axis. The figures in the engraving opposite the annular 

 scars left by the covering-leaves or bud-scales, will also 

 assist the reader in estimating the amount of growth made 

 by the branch, year after year ; for he has only to bear in 

 mind that these annular scars mark the place of the bud 

 or terminal growth of the branch during the year indi- 

 cated by the figures, to place the exact vegetative condi- 

 tion of the branch at any one of the previous years of its 

 existence, as it were, in a moment before his eyes. 



