THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



56i 



* :&■•' 



BRANCH WITH FLOWERS. 



a beautiful and slender cup-shaped form, of which a drawing is given. 

 By the middle of the month the flower heads have begun to separate. 

 The stout upright new shoot now fulfils the office of a pedicel ; 

 from some point near its base, it gives off a leaf with a bud in the 

 axil ; again curving slightly away from this point, it produces another 

 leaf, with a flower-pedicel in its axil ; yet another slight deviation 

 in the direction of its growth, and a further point is reached, where 

 a leaf and a flower-pedicel formed in similar manner appear. So it 

 continues upward, giving oft at intervals, and from every side, other 

 flower-bearing stalks. These secondary pedicels bear shorter pedicels, 

 and these again shorter ones, to which the floret- buds are attached 

 in clusters by minute stalks. The buds are downy, and in colour 

 pale green tipped with yellowish-white. By this time the leaves are 

 almost fully developed, and lying flat in the way already described, 

 and the flower heads begin to droop from the weight of the buds. 

 Each head is some live or six inches in diameter, and made up of 



