AND SUBORDINATION. 69 



The leaf-clusters which form those rudimentary shoofs 

 give a marked character to the foliage of trees. Not only 

 are the Pines indebted to them for the green clothing 

 which covers their branches, but they fill up and relieve 

 the (comparatively speaking) naked intervals of stem, be- 

 tween the more powerfully developed branches, with foli- 

 age. The Beech, Cherry, Linden, and Hazel, especially 

 derive their thick leaf-drapery from the copious develop- 

 ment of these leaf-clusters or rudimentary side-shoots ; 

 and the light and slenderly clad leafage, so characteristic 

 of the Birch, is to be attributed to their early decay and 

 removal from the stem and branches. They appear to be 

 entirely absent from the Willow. 



These rudimentary shoots may continue at a minimum of 

 development, and (as in the Beech and Cherry) for ten, 

 twelve, or even twenty years, unfold leaf-clusters from their 

 terminal bud. But when the growth of a branch stagnates 

 in this manner, its life must be necessarily greatly abbrevia- 

 ted. Sooner or later it gradually pines and dies ; the terminal 

 bud at last ceasing to have the power to unfold itself. The 

 dead twigs are then removed by the wind or other natural 

 agents, and leave behind them those naked intervals of stem 

 visible between the main branches. 



Hence, the peculiarly whorled appearance which bran- 

 ches present on the main axis or stem, which is so well 

 marked on some trees, that an experienced woodman can 

 approximate in some measure to a correct estimate of their 

 age, when he views them from a distance, by counting the 

 intervals of unbranched stem between the several whorls of 

 branches. 



The same inequality in the development of the shoots may 

 be traced also, to some extent, on the main side axes or 

 branches, and is to be attributed to the same cause, viz. : 

 the development of the upper buds into shoots, and the 

 unfolding of the lower buds into leaf-clusters ; but as the 

 branches and branchlets are necessarily younger than the 

 main axis or stem with which they are connected, the work 

 of removal has not progressed to the same extent, and the 

 dead, as well as the living twigs, still fill up the intervals 



