FOR 
BEGINNING WILL THE TREES FLOWER? LOOK AD THES EBUDS) = 
usually in given twig are 
midsummer the 
ordinary deciduous tree starts one 
of its great pieces of work—hbud for- 
mation. Then right along slowly and 
steadily the work continues until in 
February and March when sap begins 
to move, the buds swell and many 
people then notice them for the first 
time and say that buds form in the 
spring. Not so, their start is away 
back in the summer. We might almost 
say that trees are provident, before- 
handed, and have a peculiar talent for 
preparedness. 
The end of a twig is a growing 
point which forms the bud. The 
growing point is made up of delicate 
cells rich in protoplasm and in water. 
These same growing points, buds, also 
develop at the axils of leaves. So we 
have terminal or end buds, and axil- 
lary or lateral buds. As the fall ad- 
vances and winter comes these buds, 
if unprotected, would lose such a 
quantity of water that they would 
die, so Nature provides protections or 
coverings for the winter, not pri- 
marily against frost and real cold but 
to prevent loss of water. These pro- 
tections take the form of scales, or 
hairs, or waxy and resinous sub- 
stances over the outer surface of the 
bud. At the same time such cover- 
ings are great protections against 
mechanical injury to these delicate 
growing tips. 
Annual plants do not form these 
buds because the energy of the plant 
is expended in ripening the seed and 
so as winter comes on the annuals 
die unprepared for it. The perennials 
and biennial herbs die to the ground 
in winter but beneath is an under- 
larger, fuller, 
fatter than their fellows are either 
flower or mixed buds; while the more 
slender buds contain the leaves alone 
and are leaf buds. It is rather fun 
to make an estimate with a given 
twig on what the buds are to be and 
then cutting such a twig from the 
tree in February force its buds out in- 
doors. This is a good work to do in 
an elementary or high school class 
when studying this subject. 
The large size of terminal buds and 
the correspondingly smaller size of 
lateral buds as they appear on the 
same twig is due to this fact that the 
supply of nourishment going first to 
the terminal bud is used up by this 
bud according to its needs. So the 
last little bud on a twig comes out 
the small end of the horn. Pussy 
Willow twigs show this strikingly. 
And these poorly nourished little buds 
lie dormant sometimes for years wait- 
ing their chance to aoe a proper sup- 
ply of food. And of course pinching 
oft buds to throw all the nourishment 
to one bud is a sort of application of 
the plant’s own natural behavior. 
Then, too, we pinch buds from young 
cuttings and plants when we wish the 
plant’s energy to go to other work be- 
sides bud formation as in the case of 
root formation in young geranium 
cuttings. So all Nature’s own natural 
actions may be studied and re-applied 
by man in his dealings with plant life. 
Again, buds are placed either oppo- 
sitely or alternately to each other on 
the stem or are arranged on a sort of 
spiral. And if a careful study of the 
methods of budding is made one can 
work out a scheme of classification 
ground shoot or root protected from On the Maple we find buds oppositely arranged. Flowers may be forced out for trees. For example, take a Horse 
cold and ready to spring up again indoors early in Mareh. Many spring flowering shrubs may be used thus Chestnut branch and an Elm twig. 
when warm weather comes. ow the 
deciduous trees and shrubs shed those parts 
(leaves, flowers, fruits), which if they should 
remain alive and active all winter would re- 
quire more water than the inactive roots could 
supply. So the shoots of such plants are pro- 
tected by the matured wood, in thick and 
strong cell walls. Also year by year the bark 
too becomes thicker. 
Buds may contain leaf parts or flower parts 
or both in one; so buds are named leaf buds, 
flower buds or mixed buds. In general those 
On the former the buds come out in 
airs, one opposite the other; in the latter the 
Buds appear alternately on opposite sides of 
the twig, first one, then another, and so on. 
To be sure, the Horse Chestnut has at the end 
of each branch a large, fat terminal bud but 
on each side of this are opposite buds. 
The terminal bud maintains the growth of 
the main shoot of the tree in every case. Maples, 
Horse Chestnut including Buckeyes, Ashes, 
Dogwoods, with one exception, and Catalpas 
are the trees which have opposite buds. : 
The American Beech has buds arranged alternately, The Ash has opposite buds. The terminal bud full, Dogwood buds also opposite; large, round, flat. Flower 
and they are conspicuously slender, sleek and bright strong and black; the stem is remarkably angular bud very characteristic. Leaf buds slender 
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