134 AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



some plants the lateral buds are concealed beneath the 

 bark during the summer of their formation, remaining 

 invisible until the next summer. Others, for example, 

 the locust and buttonwood, have their lateral buds 

 hidden in a cuplike cavity at the base of the petiole, 

 or stem, of the leaf. 



Latent and Adventitious Buds. Not all of the 

 lateral buds on the stem of a tree develop into branches. 

 This failure of some buds to develop in a normal way 

 may be due to the fact that certain other buds get 

 started to growing well and appropriate all the nourish- 

 ment. Sometimes these undeveloped buds, called la- 

 tent buds, are destroyed, and sometimes they remain 

 dormant for a number of years. If through pruning, 

 pinching, or injury to newer buds, sufficient nutrition 

 be furnished the latent buds at any time, they may de- 

 velop and form shoots. This is seen sometimes when 

 trees develop new shoots on the trunk or on the older 

 parts of branches, especially noticeable when early 

 frosts destroy the first buds. 



More commonly, however, the irregular shoots com- 

 ing from the trunk of a tree, as in the elm, or from the 

 roots, which normally do not have buds, as in the silver- 

 leaved poplar, are from adventitious buds. These may 

 be defined as buds which occur at irregular or unusual 

 places, that is, not terminal or axillary. They come in 

 no particular order, being caused to grow by some 

 wound or mutilation. The willows, poplars, and chest- 

 nuts have young shoots from adventitious buds in large 

 numbers. Some willows are cut back in order to stimu- 

 late the growth of adventitious buds, which will form 

 pliable young shoots adapted for basket weaving. 



Bulbs and Bulblets. Bulbs are really forms of buds, 



