20 GROWTH OF PLANTS FROM BUDS. [LESSON 4. 



LESSON IV. 



THE GROWTH OF PLANTS FROM BUDS AND BRANCHES. 



37. WE have seen how the plant grows so as to produce a root, 

 and a simple stem with its foliage. Both the root and stem, how- 

 ever, generally branch. 



38. The branches of the root arise without any particular order. 

 There is no telling beforehand from what part of a main root they 

 will spring. But the branches of the stem, except in some extra- 

 ordinary cases, regularly arise from a particular place. Branches 

 or shoots in their undeveloped state are 



39. Buds. These regularly appear in the axils of the leaves, 

 that is, in the angle formed by the leaf with the stem on the upper 

 side ; and as leaves are symmetrically arranged on the stem, the 

 buds, and the branches into which the buds grow, necessarily par- 

 take of this symmetry. 



40. We do not confine the name of bud to the scaly winter-buds 

 which are so conspicuous on most of our shrubs and trees in winter 

 and spring. It belongs as well to the forming branch of any herb, at 

 ^ts first appearance in the axil of a leaf. In growing, buds lengthen 

 into branches, just as the original stem did from the plumule of the 

 embryo (16) when the seed germinated. Only, while the original 

 stem is implanted in the ground by its root, the branch is implanted 

 on the stem. Branches, therefore, are repetitions of the main stem. 

 They consist of the same parts, namely, joints of stem and leaves, 

 growing in the same way And in the axils of their leaves 

 another crop of buds is naturally produced, giving rise to another 

 generation of branches, which may in turn produce still another 

 generation ; and so on, until the tiny and simple seedling develops 

 into a tall and spreading herb or shrub ; or into a massive tree, 

 with its hundreds of annually increasing branches, and its thousands, 

 perhaps millions, of leaves. 



41. The herb and the tree grow in the same way. The difference 

 is only in size and duration. 



An Herb dies altogether, or dies down to the ground, after it has 

 ripened its fruit, or at the approach of winter. 



