36 THE FRUIT -SPUR 



But the strangest part of this twig has not yet 

 been seen, the branches are of different sizes, 

 and three of them (7, 8, 9) have so far out- 

 stripped the others that they seem to be of a dif- 

 ferent kind. It should be noticed, too, that the 

 very lowermost bud (at 1) never grew at all, but 

 remained perfectly dormant during the entire 

 year 1896. It will be seen, then, that the dor- 

 mant bud and the smallest branches are on the 

 lower part of the shoot, and the three strong 

 branches are at the very tip of the last year's 

 growth. 



If, now, we picture the twig as it looked in the 

 fall of 1895, we will see that it consisted of a 

 single shoot, terminating at B. It had a large 

 terminal bud (like those at 7, 8, 9, 10), and 

 this bud pushed on into a branch in 1896, and 

 three other buds near the tip did the same 

 thing. 



Some of these branches grew to be larger 

 than others because of more sunlight and more 

 room on this outward or upward end. In 

 1897, if this shoot had been spared, each of 

 these four largest twigs (7, 8, 9, 10) would have 

 done the same thing as the parent twig did in 

 1896 : each would have pushed on from its end, 

 and one or two or three other strong branches 

 would probably have started from the strong 

 side buds near the tips, the very lowest buds 

 would, no doubt, have remained perfectly in- 



