The buds will probably be too small for examination by the pupils, at present, but their position and development can be studied, and are very instructive. As the leaf-buds are all on the ends of the branchlets, the twigs and branches will be just below the bud-rings, and then there will be a space where no twigs nor branches will be found, till the next set of rings is reached. This gives the branches more room to develop symmetrically. The terminal buds do not develop in the Elm, in old trees, the bud axillary to the last leaf of the season taking its place, and most of the other axillary buds growing also. This makes the tree break out into very fine spray. A tree like the Elm, where the trunk becomes lost in the branches, is called _deliquescent_; when the trunk is continued to the top of the tree, as in the Spruce, it is _excurrent_. The small, feathery twigs and branches that are often seen on the trunks and great limbs of the elm grow from buds which are produced anywhere on the surface of the wood. Such buds are called _adventitious_ buds. They often spring from a tree when it is wounded. "The American elm is, in most parts of the state, the most magnificent tree to be seen. From a root, which, in old trees, spreads much above the surface of the ground, the trunk rises to a considerable height in a single stem. Here it usually divides into two or three principal branches, which go off by a gradual and easy curve. Theses stretch upwards and outwards with an airy sweep, become horizontal, the extreme half of the limb, pendent, forming a light and regular arch. This graceful curvature, and absence of all abruptness, in the primary limbs and forks, and all the subsequent divisions, are entirely characteristic of the tree, and enable an observer to distinguish it in the winter and even by night, when standing in relief against the sky, as far as it can be distinctly seen."[1] [Footnote 1: A Report on the Trees and Shrubs growing naturally in the Forests of Massachusetts. By Geo. B. Emerson, Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1875. This book will be found very useful, containing careful descriptions of many trees and shrubs, and interesting facts about them.] QUESTIONS ON THE AMERICAN ELM. How do the flower-buds differ from the leaf-buds in position and appearance? What is the arrangement of the leaves? What other tree that you have studied has this arrangement? How old is your branch? Where would you look to see if the flower-cluster had left any mark? Why is it that several twigs grow near each other, and that then comes a space without any branches? What buds develop most frequently? How does this affect the appearance of the tree? What is a tree called when the trunk is lost in the branches? BALM OF GILEAD (_Populus balsamifera, var. candicans_).