220 



THE APPLE TREE. 



RAMIFICATION. 



It is clear that the branch-system of a tree cultivated for the 



sake of its fruit must differ materially from that ot the wild stock. 



The deliberate use of the pruning knife, accidental injuries to the 



twigs during the fruit-gathering ; the removal of dead boughs ; the 



profusion of blossom encouraged by 

 artificial nourishment ; these are all 

 accountable for eccentricities in the 

 arrangement of the branches. The 

 weight of the fruit crop forces the 

 smaller branches into a pendant posi- 

 tion. Two other features very charac- 

 teristic of the tree are to be attributed 

 to the repeated loss of one arm of 

 the tork in which, as a rule, the 

 branches terminate during the earlier 

 stages of growth. These peculiarities are (i) the horizontal growth 

 of the upper boughs, which gives the tree its topped outline, (2) 

 the abrupt angle at which the branches diverge, in a curious zig-zag 

 fashion that often produces a corkscrew twist. Where the forks 

 remain intact they mark a stage in the gradation from bough to 

 branch and from branch to twig, so that the diminution may be 

 followed step by step. But where the fork becomes mutilated, there 

 is the effect of an abrupt change, instead of a gradual transition, 

 from greater to less. These twists and unexpected angles are the 

 more conspicuous because the line of the vigorous new shoot is 

 normally simple and upright. 



Many trees, however, have trunks simply curved, and some young 

 trees have slender branches of cf)nsidcrablc lcnti;th which arc borne 



