FRUIT -BEARING OF PEACH 51 



by the different buds upon the two parts. 

 Upon the older portions there are dormant buds; 

 there are also curious angular bodies at e e e. 

 We understand what the dormant buds mean, 

 but the other bodies demand explanation. They 

 are not growing branches, because they have no 

 buds. The truncate or squared ends are scars. 

 These cannot be leaf -scars, because no buds are 

 left above them (and we have found that buds 

 grow in the axils of leaves). They must, then, 

 be fruit -scars (or flower -scars). 



If we could have seen this twig (below a) in 

 the spring of last year, a piece of it would have 

 looked like Fig. 35. Three buds are borne to- 

 gether, the two lateral ones (which are evidently 

 fruit -buds) being large and thick. If it were 

 the habit of the peach to bear three leaf -buds 

 together, the method of branching of the peach 

 tree would tend to be by threes, but we know that 

 this is not the fact. We know that these objects 

 a a are not spurs (or branches), because the leaf- 

 scar is visible below each one. That is, they are 

 normal buds, formed the previous year in the axils 

 of leaves. If we could go back to this previous 

 year, we should find the condition shown in Fig. 

 36, in which a triplet of leaves is making this 

 group of buds; but there are other leaves borne 

 singly, and in the axils of these only leaf -buds 

 are borne (as a rule). From this it is seen that 

 the method of fruit -bearing of the peach is very 



