38 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



exception if there is any well-marked resemblance. The diffi- 

 culty is to account for this very striking dissimilarity. Lord 

 Avebury considers that the form of leaves depends largely on 

 the shape of the buds, that of the cotyledons on the shape 

 of the seed. Let us then examine the bud of 

 the Sycamore and compare it with that of the 

 Beech. The bud of a Sycamore is much bigger 

 than that of a Beech, its leaves are far larger and 

 more folded. It is covered with scales, and as soon 

 as the buds begin to open hundreds of scales, 

 green at the bottom where they were covered by 

 outer scales, but brownish-red at the tip, will be 

 seen on the ground underneath the tree. The bud 

 of the Beech is long and slender, and is covered 

 with brown stipules, from among which the green 

 leaves appear. The leaves lie straight, and are less 

 folded than those of the Sycamore. Certainly in 

 this case the more slender bud does have the 

 smaller leaf. 



BUDS. The examination of trees in spring just 

 as the buds begin to burst is a fascinating study. 

 The best plan is to pick some buds and keep 

 them in water in one's room to look at frequently 

 during the day. The first interesting thing is to 

 notice the position of buds. The accompanying 

 figure of a twig of Sycamore shows an apical bud 

 and axillary ones. It will be seen that the axillary 

 ones all have the scar denoting the position of the 

 fallen leaf -stalk under them. In this twig the 

 FIG. 23. Twig of internodes are long and the year's growth con- 



S u y st a ^bout bU to siderable ; {i is what is called a "long-shoot." 



burst hi Spring The limit of the year's growth is marked by the 



scars left by the scales of last year's bud. Some 



twigs have much shorter internodes, then the shoots are " dwarf 



shoots," and the leaves are more or less tufted. The Beech 



and Ash show this very well. In examining buds, it is important 



to notice which bear flowers in addition to leaves, as this to some 



