The Buds. 87 



128. Lateral Buds. Nature provides very early 

 for the next year's growth in perennial plants. With 

 the expansion of each leaf, a bud begins to form at 

 its axil, destined if need be to become a branch at a 

 later time. Sometimes, however, especially in very 

 vigorous shoots, the embryo buds at the axils of the 

 earliest formed leaves remain undeveloped. 



129. Branches Develop from Lateral Leaf-Buds 

 (131). In trees and shrubs (woody perennials), the 

 lateral buds do not usually push into growth until the 

 spring after their formation, unless the terminal bud is 

 injured. Indeed, they may never push into growth. 

 Some lateral leaf-buds, (131), especially those most 

 distant from the terminal bud, usually remain dormant, 

 through want of light or nutriment, and are overgrown 

 by the enlarging stem the following year. Such over- 

 grown buds, stimulated by destruction or injury of the 

 stem above, sometimes push into growth years after 

 their formation. 



We can usually decide if detached dormant shoots of 

 trees and shrubs, as cions and cuttings, are of the pre- 

 ceding year's growth or older, since, as a rule, only 

 wood formed the preceding year has visible undevel- 

 oped buds*. A bud, in pushing into growth, consumes 

 reserve food from the parent branch. The more hori- 

 zontal a branch the smaller is the supply of water to 

 its buds. 



130. Adventitious (ad-ven-ti'-tious) Buds. Although 

 buds are normally formed only at the nodes of the 



* Exceptions to this rule are not uncommon in unthrifty trees 

 and shrubs. 



