CHAPTER VI 



BUDS AND BRANCHES 



81. Naked buds and scaly buds. When people who are not 

 botanists speak of buds, as, for example, in referring to the 

 signs of leaf- 

 ing or flower- 

 ing of fruit 

 trees in the 

 spring, they 

 always mean 



the scaly winter buds or resting huds, such 

 as are familiar on most of our hard-wood 

 trees and shrubs (Figs. 72-86). This is, 

 however, a narrow view of the meaning 

 of the term. Herbs like our common gar- 

 den annuals, such as the bean, the pea, the 

 cucumber, and the morning-glory, are 

 as well provided with buds in proportion 

 to their size as are ordinary trees. In the 

 tropical rain forest, where the tempera- 

 ture is always high and there are violent rains almost daily, 

 there are few scaly buds. ]\Iost of the trees in such regions ha^'e 

 naked buds like those of the common greenhouse hydrangea 

 (^Hydrangea Hortensia) or the geraniums (Jr'elargonium). 



Generally speaking, scaly buds occur in woody plants which 

 grow in cold or temperate climates, where such buds are well 

 suited to resist the sudden winter changes from heat to cold, 

 and the reverse. Some of our common trees and shrubs have 

 buds which are only slightly protected by scales, but these 

 buds are usually small, and often more or less hidden under 

 the bark, as in the syringa (Philadelpims^ and the Ailanthus. 



90 



Fig. 72. Twigs of black 



walnut with buds in 



winter condition 



Two thirds natural size 



