57 o THE HOLM OAK. 



bright. And something in the form of the leaf, and the bush-like 

 shape of the tree, also brings the Holly to mind, no less than the 

 pendent branches and the evergreen foliage. 



RAMIFICATION. 



The bole in old trees is massive and covered with a somewhat 

 corky irregular bark. The bark on the boughs is comparatively 

 smooth and thin and grey in colour. The bole usually divides into 

 massive limbs a little way above the ground. The lower boughs 

 which spring from these are commonly horizontal, or drooping at the 

 ends, and give off straggling pendent branches. The lower boughs 

 somewhat resemble those of the Oak, but the upper ones are quite 

 unlike it, and their long simple lines show none of the rectangular 

 turns that are so characteristic of it. The method of growth of 

 the Holm Oak can best be understood by the study of a branchlet. 

 In Autumn a typical branchlet includes three or four twigs, some 

 four to six inches long, which spring from points quite close 

 together at or near its apex. Some six projecting scars at different 

 points along the twigs mark the place of former leaves or flowers. 

 At the apex of each twig is a group of new shoots, each with its 

 complement of about six leaves set apart, and a bunch of three terminal 

 buds. In the axils of some of the leaves are the footstalks of acorns ; 

 in others minute buds. A new shoot should now be compared with 

 the older wood of the twig, and with the still older wood of the 

 branchlet. The new shoot, as has been said, terminates in a group 

 of three buds : but, on the other hand, the twigs that spring from 

 the branchlet are set slightly apart from one other. This apparent 

 difference between the position of the buds and that of the ensuing 

 twigs is due to an imperceptible length of shoot between the buds 



