LEAF-SCARS AND BUDS 9 



or four, or more, arise together at a node, they are 

 said to be whorled. 



From the older parts of the shoot the leaves have 

 perhaps fallen off, but where each was, a mark is left 

 or scar the leaf-scar. As the stem grows and increases 

 in thickness, the surface becomes dry and cracked 

 and often peels off, so that it is impossible to see the 

 leaf -scars; but in some trees, e.g. FICUS RELIGIOSA, 

 the Peepul or Bo. tree, in the well-known ODINA 

 WOODIER in INGA DULCE and some others, these scars 

 become slits extending almost round the branches even 

 when they are a foot thick. 



Observe the ends .of the branches of any tree at 

 the beginning of the hot weather when the young leaves 

 are forming, and notice that each leaf at first arches 

 over and covers the tip of the branch, and as it unfolds 

 and, turning backwards, spreads out to the light, the 

 internode between it and the next one lengthens. The 

 tip of the branch is in fact covered by a number of 

 young leaves with very short internodes between them, 

 and is often in consequence slightly swollen. This 

 swollen end is termed a bud, and if you examine the 

 branches when the buds are opening, you will see 

 that they grow in length by the lengthening of the 

 internodes which were inside the bud ; so that if the 

 bud is destroyed, the growth of the branch is stopped. 

 It is for this reason that the tips of the shoot are 

 protected by the leaves of the bud, and for further 

 protection these leaves are often hairy or sticky, and 

 sometimes the outer ones are changed into tough and 

 hard scales, termed bud scales. In some trees that 

 grow in the even climate of the tropics, the tip does 



