BUDS. 



41 



smallness of size and early fruitfulness are so highly desir- 

 able. This will come under consideration in another place. 



Fruit-buds in most cases are distinguishable from wood- 

 buds by their rounder and fuller form; the scales that 

 cover them are broader and less numerous, and in the 

 spring they begin to swell and show signs of opening at 

 an earlier period. Like the wood-buds they are single, 

 double, or triple, according to the number found together. 

 They are single in pears, apples, and other trees of that 

 class. Single, double, and triple, variously, on the stone 

 fruits, gooseberries, and currants. 



Fruit-buds are also simple and compound. Simple, as 

 in the peach, apricot, and 

 almond, each bud of which 

 produces but one flower. 

 Compound, as in the plum, 

 cherry, apple, pear, etc., 

 each bud of which pro- 

 duces two or more flowers. 

 Those of the plum produce 

 two or three, hence we 

 find plums usually borne 

 in pairs ; those of the cher- 

 ry four or five (fig. 21), 

 and of the apple and pear 

 six to eight ; and hence 

 we often find these fruits 

 borne in clusters. They 

 are also lateral or terminal, as they occupy the sides or 

 ends of the branches or spurs on which they are produced. 

 The ordinary position of the fruit-buds of different classes 

 of trees will be understood from the preceding descrip- 

 tions of fruit-branches. 



Fig. 21. FLOWER OF THE CHERRY, 



SHOWING THE PRODUCT OF A 



COMPOUND BUD. 



