68 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



The sentinel leaves were removed from the post of duty, the new 

 leaves and shoots were unfolded from the buds. But from the 

 very first there is the same principle of subordination as clearly 

 apparent among the shoots as amongst the leaves. Just as the 

 sap, elaborated in the lower leaves of the first shoot, contribut- 

 ed to the formation of the upper leaves, so the inferior buds 

 either remain sterile or unfold simply as unbranched shoots or 

 leaf -clusters, because they are subordinate to the development 

 of the upper buds which attract the sap away from them. The 

 most considerable growths or shoots are therefore made by the 

 bud at the summit of the first year's shoot and the side-buds 

 situated in its immediate neighborhood. It is plain that all the 

 buds of the first year's shoot are equally exposed to the air and 

 the sun's influence. The inequality in their development must 

 therefore originate in a principle of subordination and subser- 

 viency in the lower leaf- buds to the upper ones. 



Now, these peculiarly abbreviated forms of the shoot play an 

 important part in the building-up of the tree-form. All the 

 little twigs which fill up the space between the larger branches, 

 and which are so plainly visible when they are deprived of their 

 leaf ornaments, have proceeded from buds which take a mini- 

 mum of development, and unfold year after year simply as leaf- 

 clusters. There is no side production. On the contrary, the 

 whole of the vital energy of the leaves is expended in the for- 

 mation of the enlarged terminal bud, and in supplying the 

 upper and more developed shoots and branches with sap. 



The leaf-clusters which form those rudimentary shoots give 

 a marked character to the foliage of trees. Not only are the 

 Pines indebted to them for the green clothing which covers their 

 branches, but they fill up and relieve the (comparatively speak- 

 ing) naked intervals of stem, between the more powerfully 

 developed branches, with foliage. The Beech, Cherry, Linden, 

 and Hazel, especially, derive their thick leaf-drapery from the 

 copious development of these leaf- clusters or rudimentary side 

 shoots ; and the light and slenderly clad leafage, so characteris- 

 tic of the Birch, is to be attributed to their early decay and 

 removal from the stem and branches. They appear to be 

 entirely absent from the Willow. 



