BKANCIIES. 



61 



D/'x and /St. Germain are quite yellowish, the Glou Mor- 

 ceau, grey or drab, and tlie Bartlett and Bufficm quite 

 reddish. Tlie shoots of certain varieties of apples and 

 pears, and especially plums, are distinguished by being 

 downy, as tliey are furnished to a greater or less extent 

 with a soft and hairy covering — in some cases barely ob- 

 servable. 



4th. Wood-Branches (fig. 7), are those bearing only 

 tvood 1 uds. 



5th. Fruit-Branches are tliose bearing fruit buds ex, 

 i lusively. Tliey are ])resented to us under difFeient forms 

 ijnd circumstances, all of wliich it is of the highest im- 

 portance to unilerstand. 



In kernel-fruits, such as the apple and pear, the most 

 ordinary form of the 

 fruit branch is that 

 generally called the 

 fruit-spur {A, B, C, 

 figs. 8, 9, 10). It ap- 

 pears first MS a promi- 

 nent bud, as in fig. 8, 

 on wood al. least two 

 years old; and for 

 two or three seasons it 

 l)roduce8 but a rosette 

 of leaves, and con- 

 tinues to increase in 

 length, as in fig. 10. 

 After it has produced 



Fig. 10. 



-FKUIT-BKANCH OF THE PEAR. 



.•1, li, C, Older Spars. 



fruit, it generally branches, and, if properly managed, 

 will bear fruit for many years. Apple and pear-trees of 

 bearing age, and in a fruitful condition, will be found 

 C(»vered with these sj)urs on all parts of the head, except 

 the young shoots. In addition to the fruit-spur, there 

 are, on the kernel-fruits, slender fruit branches, about as 

 large as a goose quill, and from six to eight inches in 



