VIII. 



BUDS, BAEK, AND PITH. 



EYOND far beyond 

 the highest possible 

 attainments of human 

 skill is the wonderful 

 provision by which the 

 curious and elaborate 

 mechanism of stem, 

 leaf, flower, and fruit 

 is compressed into the 

 tiniest of possible spaces 



in the form of a bud. No more extraordi- 

 nary instance could be afforded of the almost 

 miraculous arrangement that can be effected 

 within a tiny envelope than that of the Horse 

 Chestnut bud, no larger than a pea, once dissected 

 in mid- Winter by a German naturalist. Within 

 the minute space indicated were seventeen over- 

 lapping and protecting scales bud-scales are 



