CHAPTER VIII 



BRANCHING 



1. We learnt in chapter ii that branches of the shoot 

 arise by development of buds, which are as a rule in 

 the a^ils of leaves, so that their arrangement depends 

 in the first instance on that of the leaves. But even 

 in a young seedling plant only a few of the buds 

 grow out into branches, there would indeed hardly be 

 room for them all to develop. As the plant grows 

 older and taller, the lower leaves and branches are 

 shaded by the upper, and being as we learnt in 

 chapter iii dependent on light to enable them to 

 get food from the air, are starved and very soon die 

 and drop off. If the plant grows to become a tree, 

 hundreds of little twigs and leaves are thus killed 

 off from the lower parts and hundreds of buds never 

 develop at all, and so it comes about that the stem 

 is not branched close to the ground, and neither it 

 nor the larger branches have leaves. 



Only towards the outside where there is plenty of 

 light and air, do we find small twigs and leaves. 

 This is well seen in PITHECOLOBIUM SAMAN, the 

 Rain tree, which is so frequently planted by the 



