LEAVES IN WINTER QUARTERS. l6l 



der, shining spray high over all, to bask in the 

 sun. 



Yet this is not the only cause of this curious 

 branch variation, seen among the different trees. 

 Within sight are two trees growing quite near 

 each other: the hickory and ash. Observe the 

 difference in the manner in which they draw their 

 lines. Why is it so ? Examine closely the twigs 

 on each and notice the fashion they have adopted 

 in setting their buds. On the end of every shoot 

 of the shag-bark is placed a terminal bud, as it is 

 called, like a crown or bishop's hat, while below 

 it, on the sides, are ranged alternately, sometimes 

 at almost regular intervals, as if measured with 

 line and rule, the smaller buds, which will make 

 the branchlets of another season. The ash you 

 will see, by some strange law unto itself, has 

 taken another method of putting out its shoots. 

 The little nodes from which the leaves spring, and 

 which determine the arrangement of the twigs, 

 are all opposite ; the pair below being placed on 

 the stems at exactly right angles with the pair 

 above. This is the reason why we see in the top- 

 most spray of the ash, when it has had the full 

 light of the sun and uninterrupted growth, so 

 many forks and crosses or "vegetable weather- 

 vanes, with north and south and east and west 

 pointers, thrown out one above the other," so 

 different from the cat's-cradled, entangled tracery 



