186 STEMS 



formation was complete even before the frosts came and 

 the leaves fell. Thus, even before winter comes, the plant 

 appears to prepare for spring. Embryo shoots and flowers 

 are formed in the buds and food accumulates there. With 

 the coming of the first warm days of spring we note a 

 change. We say " the buds are beginning to swell." 

 Presently the brown, scale-like leaves which cover the buds 

 are burst apart and the first soft green of the leaves 

 appears. Or, if it be the bud of a flower-bearing branch, 

 the tender flower buds begin to show. This is a danger 

 period, especially for fruit trees. If a freeze comes now, 

 these tender, inner buds are killed. For this reason we 

 often hear of the loss of fruit crops in early spring. If, 

 after a frost, you find that the fruit buds have turned 

 black in the center, you may know that no fruit will come 

 from those buds. Some fruit may be produced, however, 

 by buds which were not yet open; trees bear many buds 

 which seem to be held in reserve, and are of much advan- 

 tage in just such an emergency. 



A. Kinds of Buds. — Buds may be variously classified. 

 As to the nature of the organs they produce, they are 

 classified as flower buds or leaf buds. Flower buds are 

 usually thicker than the leaf buds of the same plant. 

 They often produce leaves as well as flowers, and buds of 

 this kind are sometimes called mixed buds. The parts of 

 flowers are themselves, as you shall see, the same as leaves 

 in origin. 



As to the position in which they occur, buds are classified 

 as terminal, axillary, accessory, or adventitious. The expres- 

 sion terminal bud explains itself. It contains the terminal 

 growing tip ; all growing shoots end in a terminal bud. 



