97 



CHAPTER Y 



ON THE STRUCTURE OF BUDS 



HAVING thus glanced at the various ways in which buds 

 are protected by other and older structures, let us now 

 see how they behave when they are, so to say, thrown 

 on their own resources. In doing so I will, as far as 

 possible, take in illustration our familiar forest trees and 

 other common plants. 



It is in some respects difficult to draw a hard-and- 

 fast line between the buds now to be considered and 

 those described in the last chapter. 



In the Whitebeam (Pyrus Aria) (fig. 125, p. 82), for 

 instance, the pedestal of the last leaf of the previous 

 year is persistent, and, no doubt, of some use to the very 

 young bud ; but I class it here because in the main the 

 shelter is due to the outer, modified stipules belonging 

 to the bud itself. 



It is remarkable how many devices Nature has 

 adopted, and how much even nearly allied groups, such, 

 for instance, as the Willows and Poplars, differ from one 

 another. 



It is, indeed, a very general, though not invariable, 

 rule that the outer envelopes of winter-buds are formed 



