Pema 
e 
= 
8 
: 
4 
; 
THE BURSTING OF ° THE BUDS IN SPRING. 
cdi. EGAN.-b Lb: Di; 
cer Utiswater. 
‘Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni.'—HoRACeE. 
“CRABBED winter dissolves itself in the joyful alternation of 
Spring and the west wind.’ It is hoped that this translation is 
sufficiently poetical, and will also serve to rivet attention on 
what might be termed a counterpart phenomenon presented by 
science, that is to say, the fact that the unfolding of the buds in 
the merry spring-time is preceded by a physiological or chemical 
dissolving and alternation of a very interesting description. 
Confining our attention to what specially concerns us here, viz., 
the bark of our forest trees, it is known that this in all cases is 
Practically devoid of starch during the dreary winter months, its 
place being occupied chiefly by a fatty oil and glucose. As 
soon, however, as the lengthening days and not-so-chilly nights 
return again soon after the opening of the year, a very serious 
change is brought about in that part of the tree which upholds, 
feeds, and ministers to the timely necessities of those incipient 
organs known as the buds. The barky envelope of every twig 
and bough that has survived the chilly storm and icy blast 
Wakes up, so to speak, from wintry sleep, e dormant 
energies of its living tissues are aroused into activity at the 
imperious summons of the organic needs of what has been 
called ‘the hereditary periodicity of certain properties of the 
protoplasm,’ which is stimulated but not caused by the current 
condition of the environment. The respiratory process, subdued, 
if not quite stagnant, during the winter months, is now sup- 
plemented by another vigorous physiological process akin to 
assimilation. The warm raiment of the winter oil vanishes from 
every twig and bough, and about the 1st of March a quantity of 
Starch steps into its place, beginning in the youngest branchlets 
1 
_ and marching gradually but surely into the crown and centra 
Shaft of the tree. But all this represents what may be termed - 
a general preparation which is by no means sufficient as a basis 
for the operations that are to follow. Other requisites and 
perquisites are indispensable in the spring-time. For instance, 
sometimes the pith of the up-to-ten-year-old branches contains 
at the nodes a sort of diaphragm structure consisting of a kind 
of ‘albumen’ (like as in seeds) destined for future nutrition ; 
and again, at the base of the buds themselves a special tissue 
is detected wholly made up of nucleated cells provided with 
April 1899. ay 
