BUDS ,33 



regularly upwards, we shall get a spiry tree. In an 

 Oak there is a terminal bud, around which several 

 lateral ones are clustered ; this arrangement gives 

 the rosette-like branching which we all know. In 

 Lilac, as we have already seen, the terminal bud 

 always fails to develop, and a pair of lateral ones 

 take its place ; hence the strong tendency to fork 

 which we observe in this shrub. In the Elm and 

 Lime also the terminal bud fails to develop, though 

 it is often vigorous up to a certain point. Here the 

 lateral bud next below takes up the running, and 

 pushes out very nearly in the line of a regularly 

 expanding terminal bud. 



There is no constant position for the flower-buds 

 of trees and shrubs. They may be terminal, but are 

 more commonly lateral, as in the Willow. Some- 

 times there is no separate winter flo\ver-bud at all, as 

 in Beech and Oak. Here the flowers appear in the 

 axils of an ordinary leafy shoot. The flower-buds 

 are often, however, of special size and shape, and 

 enclose a leafy or leafless inflorescence. They may 

 often be distinguished from ordinary winter-buds 

 weeks before they expand, and the flowers can be 

 made out by opening or cutting across the bud as 

 early as the previous autumn or summer. 



Many plants make use of their buds as means of 

 propagation. All the organs necessary to a plant are 

 present in a bud or can be readily formed upon it. 

 Stem and leaves are already there. Roots can be 

 pushed out from the stem when required. The lea f y 

 stem can form flowers when flowers are wanted. If 

 the bud is to grow into an independent plant, it must 



