BUDS. 39 



prominent shoulders ; that is, their base forms a prominent 

 projection on the shoot. The scales are also dark, with 

 light gray edges. In the Josephine de Malines pear the 

 buds are quite remarkable for their roundness, bhmtness, 

 and prominence. If shoots of the Bartlett and Seckel 

 pears, two well-known varieties, be compared, although 

 they present no decidedly obvious peculiarities, yet they 

 will be found very different. Those of the Seckel are much 

 broader at the base, more pointed, and lighter colored, 

 being a dark drab, whilst those of the Bartlett are red- 

 dish. These miscellaneous instances are chosen simply to 

 draw attention to these points, and to show the ordinary 

 modes of comparison. When we speak of leaf-buds, we 

 have reference only to the simple bud and not to the 

 large, pointed, spur-like productions frequently produced 

 towards the middle or lower part of young shoots that 

 have made a second growth ; that is, where growth has ceas- 

 ed for a while and the terminal bud has been formed, and 

 afterwards, in the same season, commenced anew, and 

 made a second growth. 



8. Fruit-Buds. In the early stages of their formation 

 and growth all buds are but leaf-buds. Thus, on a young 

 shoot of the cherry and the plum, for example, of one sea- 

 son's growth, the buds are all leaf-buds. The next spring 

 a part of these produce new shoots, and others are trans- 

 formed into fruit-buds that will bear fruit the following 

 season. The transformation is accomplished during the 

 second year of their existence, and it usually happens that 

 they are the smallest and least fully developed that are so 

 transformed ; the more vigorous pushing into branches. 

 In the peach, the apricot, etc., on which the fruit-buds 

 are produced in one year, the change from a leaf-bud to a 

 fruit-bud occurs towards the latter part of the season. 

 The primary cause of the transformation of leaf-buds 

 into fruit-buds is not satisfactorily known, although many 

 theories exist on the subject. Observation has taught us 



