Ill 



THE BUDS ON THE TWIGS 



Now the buds begin to break. The firm winter-buds 

 swell. Their scales part. Tips of green appear. Tiny 

 leaves come forth, neatly rolled inward, growing as they 

 expand, the stalks lengthening. Resurrection is astir in 

 the tree. 



Several leaves issue from every bud. From some buds 

 arise only leaves; from others a flower-cluster emerges 

 from the leaf-rosette, showing faint color even before it 

 . expands. Very close together and tight these unopened 

 little flowers are packed as they emerge ; if we had looked 

 at them with a lens as they lay in the bud in the long 

 winter we should understand why ; now they escape their 

 bonds and rapidly grow as they are delivered, yet at first 

 pressed together by head and stem in their soft gray 

 wool. 



Thus are there two kinds of buds on the twig of the 

 bearing apple-tree, — the leaf-buds (sending forth leaves 

 only), and the flower-buds (bearing both leaves and 

 flowers). And if we wish to analyze more closely, we 

 discover two kinds of leaf-buds, — those that send forth 

 a rapidly growing shoot bearing the leaves, and those 

 from which the leaf-cluster remains practically sessile 

 on the branch. These latter, or the strongest and best of 



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