Leaf Buds 'im 



last and see how beautifully it is adapted to its 

 purpose of sheltering the delicate young leaves and 

 flowers. The sticky substance with which it is covered 

 protects it from rain and holds the scales which form 

 the outer layers firmly together. Pull off these scales 

 carefully with a pin and notice that they are arranged 

 in pairs, each pair overlapping the pair beneath it. The 

 outer scales are brown. Then they become green and 

 rather woolly. When you have taken off about six 

 pairs you come upon two little leaves, each with five 

 fingers and covered with white fluff to keep them warm. 

 There are several pairs of leaves, each smaller than the 

 last, then, if your bud is big enough you will see in the 

 very middle a tiny thing like a bunch of grapes which 

 will in time be the horse-chestnut flower. We took one 

 of the large end buds to see where the flowers grow, 

 but the smaller buds, growing along the sides of the 

 twig, are made up of leaves only. 



Now take a beech bud and see how different it is in 

 colour and in shape. It is much smaller too. If you 

 take the scales off this one you will find first several 

 layers of brown scales, then these scales gradually 

 become green at the bottom and almost transparent and 

 between each pair of scales there is a tiny leaf fringed 

 with silvery down. If you are very careful you can 

 take all the scales off without hurting the leaves, and 

 a delicate bunch of leaves is left behind. Can you see 

 how curiously folded the young leaves are when they 

 are tucked into the bud ? 



On most trees the leaves and flowers are found in 

 separate buds. This can be seen very nicely at this 

 time of year on any apple or pear tree (Fig. 51). Some 

 buds are pointed while others, the flower buds, are 



