58 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
closely around the baby foliage to protect it from 
rotting damp, and from sudden 
changes of temperature. Now their 
work is done, and in a few days 
they will fall off, or shrivel away, 
leaving scars upon the twigs to mark 
“ummm, the place where they 
’ grew. The traces left 
iw by fallen 
I IN bud - scales 
look as if a 
string had been wound with 
the utmost tightness around 
the branch, so as to encircle 
it four or five times, and 
had remained long enough 
to cut into the bark (Fig. 8). 
By counting these marks 
one can tell how many years 
a branch is old. After a 
while, by the peeling away 
of the outermost layers of 
bark, the scars upon it dis- 
appear. In the Willow we 
Fic. 8.—Apple twig, showing 
old bud-scale marks, Can scarcely find them at 
any stage of the branches’ growth, as the bud- 
