SPRAY. 157 



Sometimes it may only come into a leaf, and it 

 is the variation in length of the shoots that 

 gives a beautiful irregularity to the ramification. 

 Even in icy mid- Winter the buds are beautifully 

 bright and glossy and fresh green oftentimes on 

 one side, and red on the other. The ends of the 

 previous year's twigs are often of a green or of 

 an olive-green colour. A cut across such twigs 

 exhibits the soft green inner bark surrounding 

 the cylindrical column of white tissue, which, in 

 its turn, surrounds the long cylinder of white 

 pith. A magnifying-glass will show that there 

 is plenty of sap in the twig, for the tissue glistens 

 as the light falls upon it. If we cut across the 

 red-green bud, we shall see inside its scales the 

 incipient verdant leaf, enfolded within the covering 

 in such a way as to exemplify the greatest pos- 

 sible economy of space. There the tender em- 

 bryo leaf waits only for the first touch of spring 

 to start into vigorous life. Though appearing 

 to be wrapped in only a single scale, the Lime-bud 

 envelope really consists of several scales, and 

 by the side of each bud appears a smaller one, 

 ensconced in the same covering. 



