Fruit-buds are distinguished by shape and position. In shape, as compared with leaf-buds they are usually relatively broader and more rounded, and they are likely to be more conspicuously fuzzy (Figs. 6, 8, 11). The posi tion of the fruit-bud varies with the species. In most of the pome fruits — apples and pears — these buds are on spurs (very short branches, Fig. 6), or sometimes terminal on long axial shoots. In peaches, the fruit-buds are lateral on the current year's growth, usu ally one on either side a leaf-bud (Fig. 8). In plums and apricots, they are both on spurs and lateral on the long growth. The produc tion of fruit-buds may be influ enced to some extent by pruning, although this influence is not ex act and definite. Pruning should always be practiced in full knowl edge of the position of the in order that such buds may be saved or thinned, as the case may require. Merely to cut off limbs does not constitute pruning.
A leaf may comprise three parts,—the expanded part or blade ; the stalk or petiole ; appendages at or near the base of the petiole, known as stipules. These parts are shown in Fig. 12. Very many kinds of leaves bear no stipules. Many leaves also lack petioles or are sessile. The blade of the leaf is distinguished in form by comparing it with geometrical figures, as circular, rhom boidal, ovate, oblong, linear ; or with familiar objects, as kidney-form or reniform, heart shaped, lanceolate or lance-form, needle-shaped. The margins are distinguished as serrate or saw-toothed, dentate or toothed, sinuate or wavy, or as entire ; and many other techni cal terms are used in descriptive works to distinguish leaves, in order to identify the species to which they belong. The leaf-blade may be of one piece, when it is said to be simple ; or of two or more separate pieces, when it is said to be compound (Fig. 13). Leaves are com mon sources of food for domestic animals, forming a good part of the substance in hay and forage ; they also afford human food in lettuce, rhubarb (petioles), celery (mostly petioles), salads and "greens." All plant organs are usually explained in terms of roots, stems or leaves,—that is to say, the other organs are supposed to be derived from one or the other of these three types. Thorns and spines are branches (stems) in the hawthorns ; leaves in the barberry ; stipules in the common locust ; outgrowths of the stem in common briars and many desert plants. Climbing organs are roots in the English ivy, trumpet creeper and poison ivy ; main stems in hop and morning-glory ; branches in the grape and Virginia creeper; leaf-blades in peas; petioles in some species of clematis; probably stipules in some kinds of smilax.
Flowers are supposed to be historically derived from leaves, as explained in the succeeding article. The parts of a flower may be in as many as four series (Fig. 14),—the calyx or outer part, usually most like the foliage leaves ; the corolla, usually the showy part; the stamens or pollen-bearers; the pistils or seed-bearers. If the calyx has separate leaves, they are called sepals ; if the corolla has separate leaves, they are called petals. The end of the stem on which the flower sits is called the receptacle or torus. All these parts are explained in Figs. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 40. Often, numbers of flowers are combined into one group or cluster ; sometimes the cluster is so dense and definite as to appeal to the non-botanist as one flower, as in all the composites, of which the sunflowers and asters and goldenrods and thistles are examples (Fig. 16). Sometimes the cluster is less definite and yet compact enough to make a single impression, as in the clovers. Dried flowers form part of the substance of hay and forage. Flowers or flower parts or heads are sometimes eaten by man, as in the true artichoke, and also in cauliflower and pineapple in which the edible nart is made up of a mass of thickened stem and flowers.
The fruit, in technical and botanical usage, is the ripened peri carp (or ovary) and all the parts that are coalesced with it. In the agricultural plants, the pericarp may or may not be wholly free of adjacent parts. It is free in the cereal grains, and also the pod-fruits of the legumes (peas and beans and all their kin), the fruits of the orange kind, of tomatoes and pep pers, the stone-fruits, and cotton, and the banana. The apple and pear are carpels (a compound pistil) imbedded in a thickened stem, the carpels forming the core. Melons, pumpkins and squashes are of similar morphology,—the turban squashes show the struc ture. The strawberry has many fruits imbedded 'in a pulpy stem or torus. The raspberry is formed of many cohering drupes. The blackberry is formed of cohering drupes attached to a specialized torus or stem. The fig is a hollow torus or stem with many fruits on the inside ; it may be likened to a strawberry turned inside out. The mulberry is a cluster of ripened fruits ; the bread-fruit is similar. The gooseberries (Fig. 19) are ripened ovaries, the dried flower-parts remaining attached. Currants are similar, but the flower-parts usually drop early. Some fruits, as the chestnut (Fig. 20) and walnut, are contained in burs or husks that are no part of the fruit itself.