22 FIRST LESSONS WITH PLANTS 



order that time may be gained, the future branch 

 is packed away in miniature, ready to leap forth 

 upon the first awakening of spring. 



23. If the leaves and therefore the number of 

 buds on the shoot are determined in the bud, 

 how does the shoot increase in length? If it grows 

 from its tip alone, the leaves would be left behind. 

 We know that this is not the case. Again, we 

 know that the joints or nodes (the places where 

 the leaves are borne) are really much closer together 

 in these opening shoots in Fig. 12 than they are 

 in the mature shoots in Figs. 1 and 2. In other 



FIG. 13. 



Opening of leaf-buds and flower-buds. 



words, it is plain that the shoot increases in length 

 by elongating the internodes (or spaces between the 

 buds) 



24. Another apple twig is shown in Fig. 13. 

 We are already familiar with the leaf -buds, but the 

 lowest bud is strange. It is a fruit-bud. The bud- 

 &cales fall away ? as before, but there comes forth 



