X] 



DWARF-SHOOT OF BEECH 



79 



i.e. while the bud at B developed the long shoot A B, 

 the bud at G only gave rise to a short shoot or dwarf- 

 shoot indicated in the figure. 



But close examination shows that on this dwarf-shoot 

 G, there were borne during the season several leaves it 

 may well be quite as many as on the long shoot A B 

 but closely crowded owing to the non-development of the 

 internodes. This, again, is evident from the leaf-scars. 



It is important to notice that in future years, while 

 A B, as also G and D, may 

 go on developing equally ex- 

 tended long shoots, G may all 

 the time only extend annually 

 at the tip by about the same 

 amount as it did last season. 

 On the other hand G may at 

 anytime alter its rate of growth 

 and develop into a long shoot ; 

 or A B, or any of the buds or 

 shoots on it may for one year, 

 or even for several in succes- 

 sion, develop as a dwarf-shoot. 



As an illustration of a 

 dwarf-shoot which has persis- 

 tently developed as such, we 

 may take Fig. 51, in which 

 each of the intervals from a to 

 h, b to c, c to d and so on indi- 

 cates the growth of one year, 

 whence we infer that the whole 

 shoot (a to 7n in the figure) 

 has taken 11 years to attain its present length of a 

 few centimetres say 7 cm., since the length of a well- 

 developed Beech-bud, such as that terminating this shoot, 

 is about 2 cm. 



Fig. 51. Dwarf-shoot of a 

 Beech. The letters a m point 

 to the bud-scale scars of suc- 

 cessive years, so that the shoot 

 is 11 years old. Below a is 

 visible the scar of a leaf from 

 the axil of which the bud ori- 

 ginated ; above ?n. is the termi- 

 nal bud of this year. Between 

 each set of bud-scale scars are 

 the crowded scars of fallen 

 leaves. 



