256 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



not much smaller than the main one, are situated halfway along the stem. The second pair 

 of leaflets, smaller than the first pair, is located at approximately two thirds of the way 

 between the first pair of leaflets & the main leaflet. Thus on a stem thirty-six lignes long, 

 the first pair is located at eighteen lignes, the second pair twelve lignes above that or six 

 lignes from the main leaflet. When the leaves consist of only three leaflets, the two lateral 

 ones are about two-thirds the way up the stem. But the spacing isn't always that 

 consistent, especially for leaves on fruiting branches. The leaflets are oblong, almost oval 

 at the end where they open up, and they terminate in a uniform, sharp point at the other 

 end. Their margins are sharply, deeply and uniformly denticulate & bidenticulate. The 

 outsides are white and are marked with very prominent veins. The insides are bright 

 green and are indented with deep grooves. These veins & grooves are especially 

 pronounced because the leaflets were folded up like a fan along each vein while they 

 were still in the bud and they retain a very distinct imprint of that. Generally the lateral 

 leaflets are all divided lengthwise along their midrib into two sections where the lower 

 part is slightly wider than the other part. 



Around mid-February the canes from the previous year are cut back to between 

 eighteen inches and three feet depending on their strength. The two buds of the last nodes 

 open in the spring. A leaf grows from one bud & a fruiting branch from the other. As this 

 branch lengthens, it produces at each node (situated alternately) a leaf & a stalk or a 

 common stem that gives rise to several similarly alternating slender pedicels. The 

 pedicels are sheathed at their origin & each one bears a conical flower bud that terminates 

 in a very sharp point. 



