THE WHITE BEAM 107 



warts of a paler hue. Whilst these long, flexible 

 shoots have given the tree in some districts the local 

 names of Whip-crop and Whip-beam, the former of 

 which it shares with the Guelder-roses, affording, as 

 they do, a convenient switch for the passing plough- 

 boy, the tree also bears dwarf-shoots of strikingly 

 contrasted characters. These " spurs " are also pubes- 

 cent, but are rugged throughout their entire surface 

 with the prominent rings of leaf-scars, the internodes 

 of the stem between them being practically unde- 

 veloped, so that the leaves are borne in tufts. Each 

 leaf-scar forms a narrow crescent, showing the severed 

 ends of three principal veins or " leaf-trace bundles." 

 The spurs are given off' from the stem at angles 

 approximating to 45 degrees • and not uncommonly 

 several of them, each one inch or two inches long, 

 spring in succession from earlier shoots of the same 

 character. 



The conical, egg-shaped, olivergreen buds are 

 directed upwards, but are not flattened against the 

 stem, the one which terminates the shoot being 

 considerably larger than the lateral ones. The bud- 

 scales are green with brown margins, which are 

 slightly downy and exude a sticky secretion. Lord 

 Avebury, in his " Buds and Stipules," gives lis an 

 interesting study in detail of the structure of one of 

 the winter-buds of this tree, which may furnish a 

 useful model for an object-lesson in a country school 

 about the end of April, 



The down on the young twigs and on the margins 

 and inner surface of some of the bud-scales, the 

 number of these overlapping protections, the leathery 



