PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 



163 



For the higher grades it will be possible to work out 

 two or three trees more carefully. Suppose we have 

 apple or pear branches, and each child is provided with 

 one about two feet long (Fig. 63) ; let them, after review- 

 ing the yearly growths, make out the general arrange- 

 ment of buds, the leaf scars underneath each bud, and 

 the large fruit scars, which show where the branch has 

 borne apples. The position of these will serve to illus- 

 trate the characteristic appearance of the fruit spurs, and 

 from the condition of their buds we can tell whether the 

 tree is to blossom the coming spring. With the point of 



Fig. 63. Fruit Spurs of Pear 

 Showing rings of yearly growth and enlargements where fruits have been borne 



a sharp knife — a needle or pin will do — • lift off one 

 by one the scales that cover the bud. If in the center 

 a little clump of knobs is found, we may know that a 

 cluster of blossoms would have come forth in the spring. 

 If, instead, we find a group of slender points, folded leaf 

 embryos, we know that the bud would have produced such 

 a cluster of leaves as we see on the fruit spurs of an apple 

 tree in the off years. The function of these leaves is to 

 gather food and strength to form a fruit bud for the year 

 to follow. 



After thus dissecting a few buds of each fruit, the 

 pupils should be able to tell a fruit bud at a glance ; and 



