April, 1906.] Winter Buds of Ohio Trees and Shrubs. 
505 
He saw many porcupines, the last about 1S70. Mr. Julius 
House killed a porcupine in Wood County about 1879. 
In Daussa’s Cave, Put-in-Bay, half of a lower jaw-bone of a 
beaver was found. Mr. Wright knows of no living specimens in 
his time. 
Concerning mammals still common, a few notes may be of 
interest. In the fall of 1899, Burt Todd killed 13 raccoons, 27 
skunks and 18 opossums, nearly all within three miles of his 
home in the eastern part of Erie County. In 1900 he killed 15 
raccoons, 28 skunks and 20 opossums. 
About 1892 Charles Dildyne and his brother trapped 74 
mink in one winter in the West Huron Marsh in Erie County. 
Sandusky. 
WINTER BUDS OF OHIO TREES AND SHRUBS. 
John H. Schaffner. 
In a region where plants are exposed to severe winters and 
great variations of temperature, the development of proper pro- 
tective devices for the delicate stem tips becomes of considerable 
importance. Winter buds are usually protected by various 
kinds of scales, by pubescence, or by gummy and resinous ex- 
cretions. These devices are not developed to keep the tip warm 
nor to prevent freezing, but to check evaporation. 
In cold weather, when the temperature of the cells is reduced 
to or below the freezing point, water is driven off and solidifies 
as ice crystals in the intercellular spaces, outside of the cell wall. 
Now, as is well known, if some frozen plants while thawing out 
are submerged in water only a few degrees above freezing, they 
may recover completely, because the normal turgidity of the cell 
is thus restored. In much the same way, if a frozen bud is pro- 
perly protected by suitable coverings, when the ice melts the 
water will be retained and reabsorbed by the protaplasm of the 
cells, while if it were freely exposed the water would evaporate 
and the cells could not regain their normal condition since little 
or no water is being absorbed by the roots. 
A very perfectly protected winter bud is found in Platanus 
occidentalis. After the protective cap, formed by the base of 
the petiole, falls away with the leaf, the bud is exposed for the 
first time since its inception. It is completely covered by a single 
smooth outer scale. Beneath this is a gummy layer and on the 
inside a large amount of dense coarse pubescence. One could 
hardly think of a more perfect arrangement for keeping in mois- 
ture. 
Winter buds may be without definitely developed scales, as 
in Asimina triloba, Hamamelis virginiana, and Rhus glabra. 
