STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



The tulip tree is one of the largest and 

 tallest trees in our American forests. It has 

 long been admired for its beauty in the summer, 

 and a study of its winter buds and stems dis- 

 closes the fact that it is equally interesting and 

 beautiful when its foliage has gone. The buds 

 are peculiar in structure. Each leaf within the 

 bud is protected by a pair of stipules, and in 

 the spring, when the buds open, a leaf slowly 

 uncurls from its two folded stipule coverings 

 and another bud is seen beneath, wrapped in 

 stipules. This bud unfolds and in its turn 

 discloses another. The process is as fascinating 

 to watch as the opening of Indian boxes one 

 within another. This characteristic of the 

 tulip tree in protecting its young leaves makes 

 one associate a very human, maternal instinct 

 with the tree ; it seems of all others the most 

 careful in protecting its young growth. Sir 

 John Lubbock, in his work on " Buds and 

 Stipules," explains that the peculiar squared 

 end of the tulip tree's leaf is caused by the 

 singular way it is folded in the bud. 



" I long wondered," he says, " what could be 

 the purpose or the advantage to the tree of this 

 remarkable shape. One idea which occurred 

 to me was that the difference of form might 

 enable insects to perceive the tree at some dis- 



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