SOME FEATURES OF INTEREST IN THE ORDER OF CONIFERS. 7 



It is also because I believe the propagator and the planter may 

 derive valuable hints from it that I venture to mention the 

 subject to-day. Let me give you one or two illustrations. 

 Many of you know the difficulty there is in obtaining a leader " 

 in some species — as in Abies aviabilis, for instance — and this 

 quite independently of any insect or fungus injury. On what 

 circumstances does this difficulty depend, and how can we apply 

 a remedy ? A partial answer at least to these questions can be 

 given after noticing the arrangement of the buds at the ends of 

 the shoot. You will find in all cases a terminal bud at the end 

 of the shoot and a circlet of closely packed lateral buds immedi- 

 ately around it. Notice, too, how, in most species of Pinus, the 

 terminal bud starts into growth in spring before the side ones 

 do, and compare this state of things with what happens in Abies 

 (Silver Firs), where the side-buds usually push first. There is an 

 entire ring of these side-buds, and unless the central bud starts 

 away first it will be pressed upon by its companions, its growth re- 

 stricted, and its supplies of nourishment largely appropriated by its 

 more vigorous companions. I have sometimes fancied that there 

 is in some of the Silver Firs and in Araucarias an alternation of 

 growth in different years, so that whilst in some seasons the 

 terminal bud starts first, and manifests the greater amount of 

 energy, in others the side-shoots are the first to move and the 

 most vigorous in growth. But this is a matter which requires 

 the observation over different years of a much larger series of 

 specimens than I have been able to compass. 



In any case, if what I have said be true, we have an easy 

 means of securing a leader by simply suppressing the lateral 

 buds. 



I may also call your attention to the way in which the 

 shoots of some species of Pinus are clothed to the base with leaves, 

 whilst in others the base of the shoot is bare. The scraggy, 

 unfurnished appearance of some old Pine-trees is accounted 

 for by this peculiarity. "What to suggest as a remedy in this 

 case is not so easy. Nevertheless the frequent appearance of 

 numerous adventitious shoots on the trunk of such species as 

 Pinus rigida, P. Sabiniana, or Sequoia sempervirens seems to 

 show that by a judicious disbudding or removal of the tips of 

 some of the upper shoots forming the head a more bushy, or, 

 as gardeners call it, a more furnished, habit would result. 



