BUDS AND BRANCHES 185 



As a food producer, this is by far the most valuable family 

 of plants to man. The lily, the palm, and the orchid 

 families are also monocotyledons. 



The dicotyledons, though not so close in kinship to 

 gymnosperms as they are to the monocotyledons, are like 

 the gymnosperms in that both possess the cylindrical 

 arrangement of vascular bundles. Most of our common 

 kinds of seed plants, except pines and other evergreens and 

 members of the grass family, are dicotyledons. 



52. Buds and Branches. A bud may be defined as an 

 undeveloped shoot or as an undeveloped branch. In a 

 bud a branch lies in embryo much as the whole plant lies 

 in embryo in a seed. All branches arise from buds. 



You may be a little confused as to the use of the words 

 branch and shoot. A branch is an example of a shoot, 

 for shoot is a word descriptive of stems and leaves together ; 

 it may refer to a mere twig with one bud on it, or it may 

 refer to the whole plant except the roots. Shoot is a more 

 inclusive term than branch. 



By means of its buds the plant is able to take quick 

 advantage of growing conditions. The buds also enable 

 it to replace lost or injured branches. Buds are evidences 

 of what we might call the preparedness of the plant. 



It is in spring that we get the most striking evidence of 

 the advantages of buds to plants. Through the winter 

 the trees and shrubs have been bare and apparently life- 

 less. Yet, if you examine a twig in winter, you find on 

 it what are called winter buds. You find them just above 

 the scars which mark the places where last summer's 

 leaves were attached. These winter buds contain, under 

 many covers, growing points which are dormant. Their 



