BRANCHES. 



31 



Dix and /St. Germain are quite yellowish, the Glou Mor- 

 ceau, grey or drab, and the Bartlett and Buffum quite 

 reddish. The shoots of certain varieties of apples and 

 pears, and especially plums, are distinguished by being 

 downy, as they are furnished to a greater or less extent 

 with a soft and hairy covering in some cases barely ob- 

 servable. 



4th. Wood-Branches (fig. 7), are those bearing only 

 wood buds. 



5th. Fruit-Branches are those bearing fruit buds ex- 

 clusively. They are presented to us under different forms 

 and circumstances, all of which it is of the highest im- 

 portance to understand. 



In kernel-fruits, such as the apple and pear, the most 

 ordinary form of the 

 fruit branch is that 

 generally called the 

 fruit-spur (A, B, (7, 

 figs. 8, 9, 10). It ap- 

 pears first as a promi- 

 nent bud, as in fig. 8, 

 on wood at least two 

 years old; and for 

 two or three seasons it 

 produces but a rosette 

 of leaves, and con- 

 tinues to increase in 

 length, as in fig. 10. 

 After it has produced 

 fruit, it generally branches, and, if properly managed, 

 will bear fruit for many years. Apple and pear-trees of 

 bearing age, and in a fruitful condition, will .be found 

 covered with these spurs on all parts of the head, except 

 the young shoots. In addition to the fruit-spur, there 

 are, on the kernel-fruits, slender fruit-branches, about as 

 large as a goose quill, and from six to eight inches in 



Fig. 10. FRUIT-BRANCH OP THE PEAR. 

 A, B, <?, Older Spurs. 



