176 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



and very soon they are out of that uncanny cover- 

 ing in which they come swathed, and take their 

 places with other green things. 



The bud scales strew the ground in spring as the 

 leaves do in the fall, though they are so small that 

 we hardly notice them. All growth, all develop- 

 ment, is a casting off, a leaving of something behind. 

 First the bud scales drop, then the flower drops, 

 then the fruit drops, then the leaf drops. The 

 first two are preparatory and stand for spring; the 

 last two are the crown and stand for autumn. 

 Nearly the same thing happens with the seed in the 

 ground. First the shell, or outer husk, is dropped 

 or cast off; then the cotyledons, those nurse leaves 

 of the young plant; then the fruit falls, and at last 

 the stalk and leaf. A bud is a kind of seed planted 

 in the branch instead of in the soil. It bursts and 

 grows like a germ. In the absence of seeds and 

 fruit, many birds and animals feed upon buds. 

 The pine grosbeaks from the north are the most 

 destructive budders that come among us. The snow 

 beneath the maples they frequent is often covered 

 with bud scales. The ruffed grouse sometimes buds 

 in an orchard near the woods, and thus takes the 

 farmer's apple crop a year in advance. Grafting 

 is but a planting of buds. The seed is a com- 

 plete, independent bud ; it has the nutriment of the 

 young plant within itself, as the egg holds several 

 good lunches for the young chick. When the 

 spider, or the wasp, or the carpenter bee, or the 

 sand hornet lays an egg in a cell, and deposits food 



