72 THE STRUGGLE FOE EXISTENCE. 



being naturally diverted to the root-collum. 



(b) Tendency to form accessory buds. Some species, such as 

 sal, Terminalia tomentosa, Eugenia Jambolana, Mallotus pliilippi- 

 nensis, hawthorn, hornbeam, ash, &c., regularly develop such buds, 

 and indeed a few of them, as the Mallotus philippinensis, hawthorn, 

 &c., owe all or the greater portion of their branching and foliage 

 to them. Since accessory buds, appearing, as they do, after the 

 regular normal bud near which they are produced, are always less 

 advanced than the latter, and as they seldom sprout unless those 

 buds are already dead or injured, it is evident that in species which 

 form them there will always be a sufficient number of buds imme- 

 diately below the broken or injured part ready to sprout and re- 

 place it. 



(c) Possession of scale or othemvise aborted leaves. As in every 

 covered bud there may be, according to the species concerned, 

 from five or six to more than twenty five scale-leaves, and as the 

 internodes of these leaves never develop when the rest of the bud 

 elongates into a shoot, it is evident that at the base of every branch 

 of species possessing such buds, and practically on the stem bearing 

 the branch, there will be as many buds as there were scale-leaves 

 in the original bud, each of these buds being the regular axillary 

 bud of the corresponding scale-leaf. Thus at every node of the stem 

 there will always be numerous buds ready to sprout on receiving 

 the necessary stimulus, such as would result from the loss of the 

 whole or part of an important neighbouring organ, or even from 

 mere arrest of growth in such organ. The marvellous coppicing 

 and pollarding power of the Butea frondosa, of species of Celt is, 

 &c., affords very remarkable instances in point. AY hat has been 

 said of scale-leaves is true without any modification of the small 

 abortive leaves, that we find at the base of the shoots of so many of 

 our broad-leaved species which do not produce covered buds, such 

 as sal, Eugenias, <fcc. 



(d) Presence and abundance of dormant or latent hud a. 

 Amongst conifers the Finns lonyifolia and yew possess true dor- 

 mant and even latent buds, but such buds, if we except seedlings 

 of languishing growth of the pine, which retain them for perhaps 

 double that period, are to be found only on wood under 1U years 

 old. In deodar and larch the abortive shoots, which constittide a 

 bundle of needles and which can under favourable circumstance 

 develop into shoots, can hardly be termed dormant buds, since they 

 are after all true si loots ; moreover, they do not persist for more 

 than a comparatively limited number of years, and they never be- 



