ON THE YOUNG BARK. 29 



"We may also add to all this, that in many trees the flowers 

 too leave their traces, either in the form of withered flower 

 stems, or a peculiar mark, which continues to be recognized 

 up to a certain time. Where the inflorence is axillary, as in 

 the Ash, the flower-scar is situated just above the leaf-scar, 

 and cannot fail to be readily recognized; and thus the past 

 history of the development of the flowers is recorded on the 

 bark as well as the rate of growth and the number of leaves. 



The specific peculiarities of trees manifest themselves in 

 the smallest details of their architecture, so that the least 

 bud-trace, leaf, or flower-scar, suflices by the peculiarity of 

 its form to enable us to recognize the species of tree to 

 which it belongs, and of which it is characteristic. 



To render the principle of these researches clearly under- 

 stood, we have selected the upper part of one of the branches 

 of the purple beech (Fagus purpurea), which we have had 

 carefully drawn from an ambrotype, so that our engraving 

 is perfectly reliable, and presents a true and faithful copy of 

 the original branch. We have also constructed a biological 

 table, in which we have exhibited numerically the different 

 growths made by the primary axis and its branches, and the 

 number of leaves and buds annually developed. 



By looking at the engraving, the reader will see that the 

 main stem or primary axis of the branch has developed ten 

 secondary axes or branches. The growth, number of leaves 

 and shoots, or in other words, the history of the develop- 

 ment of each of these ten secondary axes or branches has 

 been also registered in the table, in the same way as the 

 annual progress in vegetation made by the primary axis. 

 The figures in the engraving opposite the annular scars left 

 by the covering-leaves or bud-scales, will also assist the 

 reader in estimating the amount of growth made by the 

 branch, year after year; for he has only to bear in mind that 

 these annular scars mark the place of the bud or terminal 

 growth of the branch during the year indicated by the 

 figures, to place the exact vegetative condition of the branch 

 at any one of the previous years of its existence, as it were, 

 in a moment before his eyes. 



