Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf: For the Use of Teachers, or Mothers Studying with Their ChildrenMoore, Jane Newell
Science
Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf: For the Use of Teachers, or Mothers Studying with Their Children
Moore, Jane Newell
Botany -- Juvenile literature
The buds are pointed: the terminal slightly angled, the axillary flattened
against the stem.[1] Some of the axillary buds contain leaves and some
flowers; the appearance of the leaf-buds and flower-buds being the same.
The scales of the bud are modified stipules. The terminal buds have about
three pairs of the outer scales brown and leathery. The inner scales, as
well as the leaves, are coated with resinous matter, which has a strong
odor and a nauseous taste. The smaller outer scales have no corresponding
leaf, and apparently are modified stipules of the leaves of the preceding
year, but the larger ones have a leaf to each pair of scales. The outer
and inner leaves are small, the middle ones larger. Comparing the branch,
it will be seen that these leaves make the largest growth of internode.
The leaves are rolled towards the midrib on the upper face (_involute_).
There are about ten which are easily seen and counted, the inner ones
being very small, with minute scales. The axillary buds have a short
thick scale on the outer part of the bud, then about three pairs of large
scales, each succeeding one enwrapping those within, the outer one brown
and leathery. The scales of the flower-buds are somewhat gummy, but not
nearly so much so as those of the leaf-buds. Within is the catkin. Each
pistil, or stamen (they are on separate trees, _dioecious_) is in a little
cup and covered by a scale, which is cut and fringed.
[Footnote 1: These buds cannot be satisfactorily examined in cross
section, on account of the resin. The scales must be removed one by one,
with a knife, with a complete disregard of the effect upon the hands.]
The leaf-scars are somewhat three-lobed on the young parts, with three
dots, indicating the fibro-vascular bundles, which ran up into the leaf.
The scars are swollen, making the young branches exceedingly rough. In
the older parts the scars become less noticeable. Strong young shoots,
especially those which come up from the root, are strongly angled,
with three ridges running up into each leaf-scar, making them almost
club-shaped. There are often from twenty to thirty leaves in one year's
growth, in such shoots, and all the leaves are not rudimentary in the bud.
The growth in this case is said to be _indefinite_. Usually in trees with
scaly buds the plan of the whole year's growth is laid down in the bud,
and the term _definite_ is applied. Branches, like the Rose, that go on
growing all summer grow indefinitely.
The bud-scale scar is quite different from the other trees which we have
examined. It is not composed of definite rings, but of leaf-scars with
long ridges running from each side of them, showing the scales to be
modified stipules. The leaf-scars have become somewhat separated by the
growth of the internodes. In the Beech, there are eight, or more, pairs of
scales with no leaves, so that the internodes do not develop, and a ring
is left on the branch.
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