12 



FIRST LESSONS WITH PLANTS 



twigs were dead when the pic- 

 ture was made ; showing that 

 the struggle for existence does 

 not always result from compe- 

 tition among fellows but may 

 arise from the crowding of 

 other plants. 



14. These three strong 

 branches are less than four feet 

 from the ground, but other old 

 cherry trees standing near it 

 had no branches within fifteen 

 and twenty feet of the ground. 

 They no doubt branched low 

 down, as this one, but the 

 branches eventually died in the 

 struggle ; and we therefore 

 have reason to conclude that 

 of all the branches on this 

 little tree, only the terminal 

 one, &, can long survive. The 

 trunk of a tree, then, is the 

 remainder in a long problem 

 of subtraction. 



FIG. 8. 



Indeterminate habit of the 

 sweet cherry. 



SUGGESTIONS. A young tree of the sweet garden cherry is 

 shown in Fig. 8, and one of the Morello or pie cherry in Fig. 9. 

 In the former, the terminal growths are strong, and the leader, or 

 central trunk, has persisted. The latter has long since lost its 



