The branches of pear-trees are often reliable guides in identifying varieties in orchard or nursery, especially when trees are leafless and fruitless. The twisting, drooping branches of Winter Nelis serve to identify that variety at any time. The zigzag branches of Beurré d'Anjou and Bloodgood are typical. The branches of Beurré Superfin are rough and shaggy. Those of Dorset and Fox are slender. The branches of several well-known pears are spiny. A glance through the technical descriptions in Chapter IV shows that branches and branchlets are variously colored. The branchlets may be _stout_ or _slender_, _long-jointed_ or _short-jointed_, _pubescent_ or _glabrous_, _straight_ or _zigzag_. The angle at which branchlets are set is often characteristic. The epidermis may be smooth or covered with scarf-skin. Lastly, the size, shape, color, number, and position of the corky cells or lenticels on young wood is most important in identifying trees after leaves have fallen. _Leaf-buds and leaves._--Size, length, and shape of leaf-buds are helpful in identifying varieties when the trees are dormant. There is considerable difference in the length of buds of different varieties, and they may vary in thickness; some are _plump_, others are _slender_. The shape can usually be described as _acute_, _pointed_, _obtuse_, or _conical_. If the bud lies close to the twig, it is said to be _appressed_; if it stands from the twig at a considerable angle, it is _free_. In some varieties the leaf-scar is conspicuous; in others, it is inconspicuous. While leaves vary much in accordance with the condition of the plant which bears them, yet they offer a number of valuable distinguishing characters. It is important in making use of leaves to take only those borne on free-growing twigs, as those growing on luxuriant water-sprouts on the one hand, or on slow-growing spurs on the other are seldom typical.