STUDY OF A FAMILIAR PLANT 7 



is a bud at the end of each branch like that at the end of the 

 stem, and each branch grows in the way that has just been 

 described for the stem. 



9. Axillary Buds. In the axil of each leaf that is, in 

 the angle where the leaf joins the stem or branch there is 

 also a small bud. Now and then one of these buds grows out 

 into a branch. This explains why a branch always grows 

 from the axil of a leaf. As a rule most of the axillary buds 

 remain very small, and only here and there one grows farther. 

 But if the bud at the end of the stem or of a branch is killed 

 or removed, the axillary buds are stimulated to grow, and 

 several or even all of them for some distance back from the 

 end may grow into branches. This fact is often taken ad- 

 vantage of by gardeners, because by pinching off the terminal 

 buds one can stimulate the growth of branches and so in the 

 end induce the plant to bear more fruit than it otherwise 

 would. 



10. Flower Buds and Flowers. As the plant grows 

 older, we find on examination that in many cases an axillary 

 bud contains not only the growing point of a branch and sev- 

 eral young leaves, but the beginnings of flowers as well. 

 Such a bud is called a flower bud; one that contains only a 

 growing point and young leaves is a leaf bud. When the 

 flowers open (Fig. 4), we see that they are of two kinds. In 

 some, below the yellow part of the flower there is a swollen, 

 spiny region which seems to be a part of the flower-stalk $ 

 but which really belongs to the flower; flowers with this 

 swollen portion are pistillate flowers. Others have no such 

 swollen part ; they are staminate flowers. Both kinds grow 

 from' axillary buds. The pistillate flowers are usually single, 

 the staminate flowers usually in clusters. 



11. A Pistillate Flower (Fig. 4, A). The outermost part 

 of the flower consists of five hairy, greenish-yellow, leaf -like 

 structures called sepals, which are grown together except 

 at their tips. Next within comes another series of five leaf- 



