OF BUDS. 289 



of trees are frequently irregular, although they were 

 originally disposed in regular order. 



Besides the buds evidently axillary, certain trees 

 present terminal ones, which are generally larger and 

 more forward than the others ; they are met with in 

 trees both with opposite and alternate leaves. In the 

 first case three buds grow at the top of the branch, viz. 

 the terminal one, and the two which are produced in 

 the axils of the upper leaves : these three are rarely 

 developed together ; the two lateral ones are sometimes 

 abortive, and the terminal one alone is developed, as in 

 the Horse-chestnut, Pavia, the Sycamore, &c. Some- 

 times the terminal one is abortive, and the lateral ones 

 are developed, whence a bifurcation results, as in the 

 Lilac. The same differences take place in trees with 

 alternate leaves. Thus, the terminal bud continues the 

 branch in the Holly, Oak, Peach, &c. ; it is absent or 

 abortive, and the branch is continued by the buds of the 

 upper axils in the Apricot, Rose, Hazel, &c. 



The development of the buds of a branch in spring 

 commences almost always at the apex, and proceeds 

 downwards, so that the lower buds are the last to shoot, 

 and sometimes are not developed. This appears to 

 result from the upper part being more herbaceous, and 

 consequently more sensible to the action of the warmth 

 of the atmosphere ; whence it results that an equal 

 degree of warmth applied to a whole branch has a 

 greater action upon each bud in proportion as it is 

 nearer the top. The exceptions even confirm this rule ; 

 for in the trees where the branches are of an equal 

 degree of hardness, or, as gardeners say, equally ripened 

 throughout, the buds follow the contrary order of de- 

 velopment, being influenced by the ascending sap ; as in 

 the Larch, Gincko, &c. 



The buds of Dicotyledonous trees differ from one 



VOL. II. v 



