Thorny and Climbing Plants. (A walk) 99 



HOME WORK. 



Make a life-size sketch of each of the twigs you brought home. 

 If a sketch represents a thorny twig, write under it what you think 

 the thorns really are, giving your reasons. If it is of a climber, state 

 the part used for climbing. 



CHAPTER XIII 



LEAF BUDS 



Season. Fourth week in March. 

 Materials required for each pupil. 



One Brussels sprout. One horse-chestnut bud. One 

 beech bud. 4 6 living twigs of various kinds and 

 ages. Pencil and writing block for writing in the 

 garden. Dissecting needles (large blanket pins or a 

 small penknife can be substituted for these). 



There is one form of leaf bud that you all know very 

 well. Pull the curled leaves of a Brussels sprout off, 

 one by one. They grow smaller and smaller until they 

 are almost too small to see at all. At last they are all 

 gone and a short fleshy stalk is left behind, with knots 

 that are really tiny new buds growing in the axils of 

 the leaves you pulled off. The whole sprout is merely 

 a bud with young leaves folded over each other to 

 resist the cold weather. 



Buds vary very much in colour and in shape in 

 different kinds of trees. If you look at them during 

 the winter you will quite soon get to know the round 

 black ash buds and the pointed reddish ones of the 



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