SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



71 



shoots give rise to a cluster of flowers, and also to 

 an accompanying leaf-bud. An arrangement which 

 I think is peculiar to the lime is this formation of a 

 leaf-bud in the same axil with the inflorescence. 

 Hence it arises that when the fruit is ripened and 

 falls oft' with its stalk, the node or joining does not 

 exhibit a bare space as in the elm or ash, but a bud 

 ready to produce a leafy shoot in the following 

 spring. Thus the ultimate branches of the lime 

 are often more furnished with sprays than in the 

 elm or beech ; and as these sprays do not show a 

 tendency to turn upward, the flat fan-like mode of 

 growth is in general very observable. 



It has been said that the lowest leaves on the 

 current year's shoot do not always produce 

 leaf-buds as well as flowers in their axils ; 

 or, if they do, it is only small and 

 weakly ones. The strongest buds 

 are those formed nearest the tip 

 of the shoot, more especially , , ,, . 



if it is the leading shoot of -^-iW'^ / r i 



the branch. In this ^" '^' ^^' 



case the ultimate 

 axillary bud 



winter, when it will be found that the bud at its tip 

 has been formed in the axil of the uppermost leaf, 

 and the scar left by that leaf on falling may be seen 

 at the base of the' bud on one side, whilst on the 

 opposite side may be observed a smaller scar, which 

 marks the position occupied, either by a stalked 

 cluster of flowers or by the growing-point before it 

 withered away. This contributes to a zigzag 

 direction in the shoot as it lengthens. The angle 

 which the older branches make with the main 

 trunk is commonly less than forty-five degrees. 

 The divergence of the lesser branches and of the 

 ultimate sprays from their parent branches is 



Common Lime, 

 Tilia intermedia, D.C., early summer state. 



takes the office of the growing-point, as in the elm, 

 and in the following season carries forward the 

 branch in the same direction as before, whilst the 

 lower axillary buds give rise at the same time to 

 leafy flower-bearing shoots, which fringe the leader 

 throughout the length of its last year's growth. 

 The leading shoot of each branch, although slender, 

 is moderately strong, and maintains a horizontal 

 or even ascending direction, save towards the 

 extremity where it is weaker and drooping. 



The perishing of the growing-point of the year's 

 shoot in autumn and the devolving of its office on 

 the nearest axillary bud does not seem to have 

 been noticed in the case of the lime, but it may 

 readily be seen, on examining a healthy twig in 



usually much greater than this. The length of 

 internode varies from one and a-half to two and 

 a-half inches in vigorous shoots, whilst on the 

 small spray wood it is often no more than half an 

 inch. In the luxuriant shoots again, which often 

 arise from the base of the stem, it will sometimes 

 be found to be as much as four inches. 



In the general character of its branching it shows 

 some similarity to the more slender-growing forms 

 of the wych elm, as might be expected from the 

 identity of their leaf arrangement. But the 

 branches of the lime show more subordination to 

 the main trunk, and, as has been already pointed 

 out, they maintain more distinctly the flat fan-like 

 form ; then, as they extend and lengthen and their 



