The Apple. 



41 



these flowers were terminal on the branches 

 that bore them, the latter could grow no 

 farther. They would have perished back to 

 the main stem after maturing their fruit, 

 had there not been a bud beneath the 

 flower to continue the growth (41). 



It is evident from the figure that the 

 buds that expanded into flowers in the 

 spring of 1900 were two years old, i. e., 

 they flowered at the beginning of the third 

 year of their life. Their development as 

 axillary buds commenced in the spring of 

 1898. Buds in the apple do not often flower 

 younger than this. The lateral buds which 

 do not push into shoots may form embryo 

 flowers the second summer of their life; 

 they often do not, however, until the third 

 or fourth summer. If the tree is not pruned 

 to admit sufiicient light, many of the buds 

 will never form flowers. 



The further development of the fruit 

 branches (spurs) is shown in Figs. 6 and 7. 

 In the right part of Fig. 7 is shown a fruit 

 spur that pushed into growth as the result 

 of too severe pruning of the main branch 

 beyond it. This spur was changed to a 

 shoot, and might not have fruited again. 



Since the fruit spur in the apple must 

 branch every time it flowers, each flower- 

 ing brings its buds in less direct connection 

 with the axis of growth, hence fruit on the 

 older spurs will receive less water than that 



Fig. 5. Twig from bearing apple tree. 



