INSTRUCTIVE CHERRY TREES 9 



branches die before they come to bearing age, no 

 doubt, but some of them perish after they have 

 attained to a considerable size. A forest tree 

 grows a tall, straight bole because the side branches 

 are lopped r off; and the more vigorous this prun- 

 ing, the taller and stronger the tree becomes. 



Another black cherry tree, two years old, found 

 in the woods, is shown in Fig. 2. The first year 

 it grew from the ground to , and it bore buds at 

 regular intervals, about two dozen of them. 

 The second year, the terminal bud sent out a 

 shoot to 5, and thirteen lateral buds gave rise to 

 branches. Of these thirteen lateral branches, 

 obviously only three stand any chance of living 

 in the dense shade of the forest. In fact, four 

 or five of the lowest twigs were dead when the 

 picture was made; showing that the struggle for 

 existence does not always result from competition 

 among fellows, but may arise from the crowding 

 of other plants. 



These three strong branches in Fig. 2 are less 

 than four feet from the ground, but other old 

 cherry trees standing near it had no branches 

 within fifteen and twenty feet of the ground. 

 They no doubt branched low down, as this one, 

 but the branches eventually died in the struggle; 

 and we therefore have reason to conclude that of 

 all the branches on this little tree, only the ter- 

 minal one, b, can long survive. One has only to 

 look on the forest floor to see how freely trees 



