LESSONS WITH PLANTS 311 



in the tubers or potatoes. We use this supply of starchy 

 food intended primarily for the plant. Similarly other 

 underground stems and bulbs are storehouses for food. 

 This is generally used the next season in making a rapid 

 growth. Most of our very early spring flowers are enabled 

 to bloom so early because they have a supply of food 

 ready. Dig up a number of the earliest spring flowers and 

 this will be seen to be true. 



Buds 



One of the first signs of spring is the swelling of the pussy- 

 willow's buds. They may be found in wet meadows and 

 sloughs, in company with poplars and red osiers. Let the 

 children bring some to school. Set the twigs in water and 

 watch them develop. These pussies are flower buds. 



A little later collect twigs of lilac, cottonwood, soft maple, 

 boxelder, and horse-chestnut and place them in water. Let 

 the children study the changes from day to day. First the 

 buds swell, then the little brown, dry scales with which the 

 buds are covered are pushed apart or entirely crowded off, 

 and a little bundle of delicate leaves, or a flower cluster, or 

 both, appear. In a few days more the leaf buds have elon- 

 gated into short stems with the leaflets arranged alongside. 

 From such a study it will be seen clearly that a leaf bud or 

 a flower bud is a condensed or miniature stem with leaflets, 

 packed away in the protecting scales. In the course of a 

 season, the buds on young trees may grow to the length of 

 several feet, though the growth is much less on the older trees. 



Note the bud scales, their thickness, texture, stickiness, 

 or hairiness. They serve to protect the buds from mechan- 

 ical injury and prevent the drying out of the tender leaflets 



