II.] AXILLARY BUDS 13 



latter that the outermost i.e. those lowest on the stem 

 are the oldest and largest, and the innermost i.e. 

 uppermost are the youngest ; and that the gradual 

 emergence of the primary shoot from between the coty- 

 ledons, and its elevation above the surface of the soil, 

 where it expands leaf after leaf to the light and air, are 

 due to the successive growth of the internodes between 

 the leaf-insertions. First the internode (the epicotyl) 

 between the insertions of the cotyledons and the bud 

 elongates, and the plumule or primary bud is freed and 

 elevated into the light and air : then the next internode 

 elongates, and so on, the corresponding leaves becoming 

 free and expanding in the order of their succession from 

 oldest to youngest. 



When these leaves are fully expanded, we shall 

 generally find that they have buds in their axils : and 

 it is from these axillary buds that the lateral branches 

 will be developed in exactly the same manner by the 

 elongation of their internodes, and since the structure of 

 each lateral bud is essentially the same as that of the 

 terminal bud already described each, in fact, being the 

 terminal bud to the branch into which it develops 

 there is no need to do more than indicate them, and to 

 point out that it is especially in perennial plants, such as 

 trees and shrubs, that these axillary buds are prominent, 

 though they are commonly to be found even in the axils 

 of the cotyledons, or first seed-leaves. 



So far I have considered the simplest case of a bud, the 

 leaves of which are all alike, or nearly so, and of the usual 

 herbaceous texture characteristic of green leaves. But it 

 is evident at a glance that in the buds of most of our forest 

 trees and shrubs, which rest during the winter, the outer- 

 most coverings of the bud, the bud-scales, are very different 

 in texture from the delicate young leaves inside; this is 



