66 Trees, Stars, and Birds 



are not arranged in the same way as on some other 

 trees. If the leaves are gone, the scars or leaf traces 

 will show where they were. In the elm they are arranged 

 on opposite sides of the twig, and as the twigs grow 

 where leaves were once, they also have this two-ranked 

 arrangement that is, they are in one plane. You 

 can see this by looking up into an elm tree. The same 

 arrangement can be seen in a beech, basswood, or dog- 

 wood, but most trees have a different arrangement. 

 Is there any connection between the two-ranked 

 arrangement of leaves and the arrangement of the 

 branches in tiers as described in Chapter Eight 

 (page 61)? 



Five-ranked arrangement. If you take a vigorous up- 

 right shoot from a peach, apple, or poplar and imagine 

 a line run from one leaf or bud to the next and on to the 

 next and so on, you will find that this spiral line, after 

 going twice around the stem, comes to bud No. 6. If 

 the shoot is not twisted, bud No. 6 is over bud No. i, 

 No. 2 is two fifths of the way around from No. i, and 

 No. 3 is four fifths of the way around, so that after the 

 line passes over five spaces and comes to bud No. 6, it 

 is found to be five times two fifths, or ten fifths, of the 

 way around, and thus directly over the first. This 

 arrangement, which is a good one to prevent one leaf 

 from shading another, is found on many kinds of trees. 

 Notice whether the sixth leaf is high enough above the 

 first not to shade it. 



The two-ranked and the five-ranked or two-fifths 

 arrangement is found on trees with alternate leaves. 

 If leaves are opposite, like those of maple trees, is 



