AND SUBORDINATION. 69 



These rudimentary shoots may continue at a minimum of 

 development, and (as in the Beech and Cherry), for ten, twelve, 

 or even twenty years, unfold leaf-clusters from their terminal 

 bud. But when the growth of a branch stagnates in this 

 manner, its life must be necessarily greatly abbreviated. Sooner 

 or later it gradually pines and dies ; the terminal bud at last 

 ceasing to have the power to unfold itself. The dead twigs are 

 then removed by the wind or other natural agents, and leave 

 behind them those naked intervals of stem visible between the 

 main branches. 



Hence, the peculiarly whorled appearance which branches 

 present on the main axis or stem, which is so well marked on 

 some trees, that an experienced woodman can approximate in 

 some measure to a correct estimate of their age, when he views 

 them from a distance, by counting the intervals of unbranched 

 stem between the several whorls of branches. 



The same inequality in the development of the shoots may be 

 traced also, to some extent, on the main side axes or branches, 

 and is to be attributed to the same cause, viz.: the development 

 of the upper buds into shoots, and the unfolding of the lower 

 buds into leaf-clusters ; but as the branches and branchlets are 

 necessarily younger than the main axis or stem with which they 

 are connected, the work of removal has not progressed to the 

 same extent, and the dead, as well as the living twigs, still fill 

 up the intervals which separate the more powerfully-developed 

 shoots and branches from each other. 



The struggle for superiority then commences with the second 

 year's growth. It is at this time that all the branches make the 

 same start in life. At the close of the second year, the upper buds 

 developed from the axillae of the upper leaves, have produced 

 shoots, the lower only leaf-clusters ; the former have therefore got 

 considerably ahead of the latter, during the same period of time. 

 An inequality has been generated, which increases more and 

 more every year. The third year, the terminal bud of the lower 

 shoots unfolds again as a leaf-cluster; but the upper shoots 

 become mother shoots, developing from the buds, at their sides 

 and summits, other shoots like themselves. It is thus they con- 

 tinue progressing from year to year, until they ultimately become 



