32 



BUDS. 



[section 4. 



the "Rose, Blaclcborry, and E;ispberry. Tliat is, these shoots are apt to 

 grow all samnier long, until stopped by the frosts of autumn or some other 

 cause. Consequently they form and ripen no terminal bud protected by 

 scales, and the upper axillary buds are produced so late in the season that 

 they have no time to mature, nor has their wood time to solidify and ripen. 

 Such stems therefore commonly die back from the top in winter, or at 

 least all their upper buds arc small and feeble ; so the growth of the suc- 

 ceeding year takes place mainly from the lower axillary buds, which are 

 more mature. 



63. Deliquescent and Excurrent Growth. In the former case, and 

 wherever axillary buds take the lead, there is, of course, no single main 

 stem, contiuued year after year in a direct line, but the trunk is soon lost 



in the branches. Trees so formed commonly have rounded or spreading 

 tops. Of such trees with deliquescent stems, — that is, witli the trunk 

 dissolved, as it were, into the successively divided branches, — the common 

 American Elm (Fig. 80) is a good illustration. 



G4. On the other hand, the main stem of Firs and Spruces, unless de- 

 stroyed by some injury, is carried on in a direct line throughout the whole 

 growth of the tree, by the development year after year of a terminal bud : 

 this forms a single, uninterrupted shaft, — an excurrent trunk, which can- 

 not be confounded with the branches that proceed from it. Of such spiry 

 or spire-shaped trees, the Eirs or Spruces are cliaracteristic and fainiUar 

 examples There are all gradations between the two modes. 



Fig. 80. An American Elnj, with Spruce-trees, and on tlie left Arbor Vitae. 



