18 



LESSO.VS WITff PLANTS 



Fig. 15. 



The curious history of a 

 wild cherry tree. 



overtopping them ; and the blades 

 of these leaves stand in a hor- 

 izontal position. Fig. 14 is a 

 « shoot from a topmost 



bough, where there is 

 less struggle for light, 

 and therefore shorter 

 leaf-stalks and more 

 various positions of 

 leaves. It may be said, then, 

 that even the ' leaves on a tree 

 attempt to arrange themselves 

 with reference to sunlight. 



19. A black cherry tree two 

 years old, taken from the woods, 

 is shown in Fig. 15. The 

 first year it grew from the 

 ground to a, and it bore buds 

 at regular intervals, — about two 

 dozen of them. The second 

 year, the terminal bud sent out 

 a shoot to &, and thirteen lat- 

 eral buds gave rise to branches. 

 Of these thirteen lateral branches, 

 obviously only three stand any 

 chance of living in the dense 

 shade of the forest. In fact, 

 four or five of the lowest 



