Morphology of the Citrus. 203 



or buds that is, out of one seed two or more plants 

 germinate. This is well known, and is an interesting 

 fact, because in all the Citrus trees I have examined 

 I found that in the axillae of the leaves there are 

 always two or more buds, and therefore the seed buds 

 appear to be merely a repetition of the buds in the 

 normal axillae. Of a pair of buds, either one developes 

 into a spine and the other remains dormant, or one 

 developes into the usual branch, with a dormant bud 

 at its base, or both remain dormant, or both develop 

 into twin branches, or both the spine and the branch 

 are developed side by side in the axilla of the leaf. 



In .the Malta orange tree spines are not easily 

 developed, and often I have seen two branches in its 

 axillae. I have seen this also in the lemon. In the 

 lime, one spine and one branch are almost always 

 developed, side by side. I have also seen two branches 

 and one spine in the same axilla of the lime. In the 

 interesting Citrus australis, a seedling of which was 

 kindly sent to me from the Botanic Garden of Saha- 

 runpore, there was the same peculiarity a spine and 

 a branch, or two spines, in each axilla. The multiple 

 buds in the Citrus seed are therefore accounted for by 

 the multiple buds in the axilla of the leaves, the one 

 set being homologues of the other. 



There are few trees, perhaps, which have perfected 

 so many curious apparata as the Citrus to enable 

 them to struggle efficiently with competitors and sur- 

 rounding enemies, and to obtain allies in helping it on. 

 It has provided itself with spines, sometimes so for- 

 midable that, as Mr. Webster says, even " an elephant 

 refused to face the lemon-thicket." (^^description 

 of pi. 200.) Its fruit has taken on brilliant colours to 

 attract passing birds, and has provided them with a 

 palatable pulp, so that they may not fail to come again 



