THE GROWTH OF THE TREES. 



3i 



good example of this system ; and, in fact, all the rounded and 

 spreading tops of trees are the outcome of this mode of growth. 



Following these general principles and with many variations 

 in details, trees grow from their seeds and throw out from leaf- 

 buds their branches. It is only by a close observation of them 

 that we can begin to appreciate the fineness of their organism. 

 They leave nothing to chance. Even in the seed we have seen 

 something of their careful advance preparation, and also how 

 when overtaken by it they are equally able to meet misfortune. 

 It is to this wonderful readiness that we owe the sudden and 

 luxurious burst of foliage in the spring. The buds that have 

 been nurtured throughout the winter then await only the soft, 

 warm touch of spring to open and lengthen their joints, that the 

 unfolding leaves may be sufficiently separated from each other. 

 Very little, if any, of the earliest vegetation comes directly from 

 the seed. 



Trees are so often regarded simply as masses of foliage that 

 much of the beauty and fragrance of their blossoms is lost by 

 the unobservlng. In the earlv spring many of them are laden 

 with exquisite flowers, and all of the trees bloom. Their flowers 

 grow from buds ; and buds that appear at the same places as do 

 leaf-buds. They are always either terminal or axillary, and 

 never occur where a branch might not have occurred. Scientists 

 tell us that the flower is nothing more than a suddenly arrested 

 branch which the plant, to fulfil certain purposes, has so 

 t''ansformed. 



When the flower-bud unfolds, its axis does not lengthen as 

 does that of the branch ; but it remains almost as short as 

 when in the bud. The leaves then, transformed into sepals 

 and petals, remain closely together, and either are spirally ar- 

 ranged after the manner of leaves, or they alternate in whorls. 

 The stamens of a flower are generally regarded as modified 

 leaves ; and a simple pistil is plainly a leaf with its margins so 

 folded together as to form an enclosure, or the cavity of the 

 ovary. The apex is extended into the style, while the edges of 



