20 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



early fruitfulness are so highly desirable. This will come 

 under consideration in another place. 



Fruit buds in most cases are distinguishable from wood 

 buds by their rounder and fuller form ; the scales that covei 

 them are broader and less numerous, and in the spring they 

 begin to swell and show signs of opening at an earlier pe 

 riod. Like the wood buds they are single, double, or triple, 

 according to the number found together. They are single 

 in pears, apples, and other trees of that class. Single, 

 dovltle, and triple, variously, on the stone fruits, gooseber- 

 ries, and currants. 



Fruit buds are also simple and compound. Simple, as 

 in the peach, apricot, and almond, each bud of which pro- 

 duces but one 

 flower. Com- 

 pound, as in the 

 plum, cherry, ap- 

 ple, pear, &c., 

 each bud of 

 whicli produces 

 two or more flow- 

 ers. Those of the 

 plum produce 

 two or three, 

 hence we find 

 plums usually 

 borne in pairs ; 

 those of the cher- 

 ry four or. five (fig. 20), and of the apple and pear six to 

 eight ; and hence we often find these fruits borne in clus- 

 teiiB. They are also lateral or terminal, as they occupy the 

 sides or ends of the branches or spurs on which they are 

 pr jdu( ed. The ordinary position of the fruit buds of dif- 

 ferent classes of trees will be understood from the preced- 

 ing descriptions of fruit branches. 



1- -a. 20. 



Fig. 20, flower of the cherry, showing the product of 

 a compound bud. 



