We shall be disappointed if we expect to had a bud above each leaf scar on a chestnut twig. Most of the trees energy is usually expended in forming the large terminal buds. These generally contain Him-o•,: end le:Ives feels_ one or two are formed below to carry forward the growth of the twig which comes to an abrupt stop where flowers and fruit are borne. Then we shall find other weak side buds, _formed as if to fa back upon inn case of injury to the stronger ones. If no such emergency arises, these buds die.
Very frilly developed and easily made out are the parts locked up in the big terminal winter buds of the horse chestnut. Outside are the bud scales, set un in pairF, as ane the leaves. They shingle over each other, and are weather-proof, being sealed tight with a pimply substance. When the scales a re all removed we come upon the miniature leaves, folded in pairs, palms together, over a central spike of flowers. If the flowers are •ackin(r the number of leaves reater.es will be eater.
The twigs of the wild cherry are supple like the willow, and their buds are slender and pointed. Each is protected by over lappi»g scales, and sits upon a little shelf that bears the small leaf scar on its outer edge. At the base of the twig is a cluster of lines. 'These are the scars of the scales of last winter•s bud. The accompanying twig with its live leaves and its five buds grew this season from that winter bud.
The gray-green downy twig of the butternut is full of char acter in winter. Its buds are like no others. The terminal bud is large, containing besides a tuft of leaves the cluster of pistil late flowers. The lateral buds vary in from one to three over each leaf scar. The lower one is usually too small to a_mount to anything. The two above may both be little pine-apple like bodies which are the unprotected catkins of the staminate flowers, or one may be a catkin and the other a scaly bud that has a leafy shoot wrapped up in it. The buds are borne on a shelf, under which is the leaf sear, three lobed, with bundle sears well marked, and over it a beetling hairy ridge, like a pair of evel(rows.
noticeable are the pungent ode r, and the clammy feel of butternut and the chandwred pith characteristic of all walnuts and butternnts. The black walnut buds and leaf scars somewhat reseinhlo those of the butternut. But there is never a sw)•(q-istion of hairiness or clamminess upona black wahmt twig.
The slender winter buds of the beech are very elegantly formed. The brown scales that wrap them are thin as tissue paper, and covered with soft silken hairs. Two years of growth are shown in the pictnre, each of them beginning with the casting off of the bud scales whose scars form a band of considerable width on the stem. The little laid near the base of the twig is (lead. While the terminal bud grew out, bearing three leaves and as many lusty buds last summer, the side laid, less favorably situated, grew a frac tion of inch, bore a leaf, and finished with a bud.
The shagbark hickory expresses well the vigor and decision of its character in its winter buds. Note the
strong thick coverings that lie under the outer pair of scales. The leaves are perfectly formed inside these scales—all's ready for the spring start, awl the steady growth next summer. The prominent sear below each bud is an index to the size of the leaf that grew there.
if we examine a catalpa twig in winter we are almost sure to think that the tree is dead. The oval leaf ;wa rs stand out prominently, set at intervals in whorls of threes or in pairs about the stein. But above each scar is a mere; dot. If this is a bud it must be a blighted one. What prophecy do we see of the almost tropical foliage and the great flower clusters that are the glory of these trees iii 31 June? Bat the catalpa tree is not (lead. About the middle of Alay it wakes from its winter sleep, and in an incredibly short time those tiny bulls have clothed it in a luxuriance of leaf and flower that outdoes all the efforts of neighbor trees.
Ilitve you ever opened a winter bud and counted the tiny crumpled leaves? They were made last summer and tucked away " for future These miniature leaves are arranged upon their miniature stems in a definite mathematical order. Upon the position of them how much depends? For are nut buds to develop later in their itxils? ,\11(1 are not the twigs that rise from these buds to be the great boughs of suc ceeding years? Leaf-arrangement is intensely interesting, when we come to study it. The botanists try to scare the common folks away from it by calling it Phyitotaxy. But they can't keep the fun all to themselves. Let us get into their pleasant game. Here are the maples and the ashes and the buckeyes —they all have their leaves opposite. This fact is well worth remembering. A pair of leaves reaching north and south are set above (and below) a pair reach ing east and west. Twigs and branches have the same arrangement. We know why. Then there is the alternate plan.
Beech, sycamore, elm and basswood have two-ranked leaves, one at each joint, all lying in a. horizontal plane, but alternating along the sides of the twig.
There are many ranking. plans,—from twos to thirteens ai id up, to lie found among trees. The five-ranked order is very common. The leaves are set, one at a joint, and ? t line joining tlic:u is a spiral that goes twice around the twig before the reached directly above (or below) the one chosen as a st trting point. All the common fruit trees have this order,— plum, cherry, peach, apple, pear. The flowers and often the fruits repeat the of Five;'' for floral parts, tie botanists say, are simply " modified which are brought into the same plane by the shortness of the stem. An apple core and a peach blossom will have more to tell us hereafter, will they not Whatoloes it all mean, this precision of arrangement of leaf and bud and branch ? The fulfilling of the law means for each tree the best possible arrangement of its foliage, year after year. Be enuse of this law, each leaf in its appointed place has a chance to make the most of the blessings of air, sap and sunshine it receives.