8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The buds and the scales which envelop them afford valuable 

 objects for study and comparison, the more so in that they are 

 not so much influenced by external conditions as are some other 

 organs, and that the " characters " they offer are therefore more 

 constant than some others and proportionately well suited for the 

 discrimination of one species from another. The manner in 

 which the young growing shoots either push their way through 

 the bud-scales, leaving them in the form of a tube or sheath, or 

 lift them off in the form of a conical cap, is also a point worthy 

 of attention, for, though not exempt from variation, it is 

 sufficiently constant to be useful for purposes of discrimination. 

 The form of the young shoot after it has protruded beyond the 

 bud-scales also merits attention. Sometimes it is cylindric or 

 conic, sometimes brush-like, at other times nearly flat, or with a 

 central depression. These differences depend in the first instance 

 upon the arrangement of the leaves in the bud, and in the next 

 on the way in which they arrange themselves as the bud 

 lengthens into the shoot. 



The direction which the side-shoots assume when growing, 

 independently of the gyratory movement before alluded to, is also 

 worthy of notice. In some cases the most energetic growth is, 

 at any rate for a time, on the lower surface of the shoot, whence 

 arises an upward direction of the tip of the shoot and a curvature 

 of the shoot itself, which is convex on the lower, concave on the 

 upper surface. In other species the greatest growth-power is on 

 the upper side of the shoot ; the lower side now acting as a curb 

 causes a downward bending of the tip of the shoot and a general 

 curvature whose convexity is upwards. These are the condi- 

 tions which botanists denote as "epinasty" and *'hyponasty" 

 respectively. Whether there is any definite relation between the 

 " epinastic " condition and the downward bending of the so-called 

 pendulous or weeping varieties of Spruce, of Sequoia, &c., is a 

 matter for further inquiry and observation in the garden. 



The branching of the Conifers is associated in most people's 

 minds with the idea of formal symmetry, especially when the 

 trees are young, and in some cases that remains true to the end ; 

 but, in most instances, wind and storm, frost and snow, and the 

 innumerable contingencies that occur during the life of a tree 

 leave their marks upon it, and the primitive regularity is replaced 

 by a ruggednesa of outline delightful to the eye of an artist, 



