Outlines of Lessons in Botany: For the Use of Teachers, Or Mothers Studying with Their Children by Jane Hancox Newell

Author:Jane Hancox Newell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ginn & Co.
Published: 1892-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Fia. 15.—^Copper Beech. 1. Brancb in wiDt«r state; a, leat-scar; b, bud-scar. 2. Branch, with leat-buds ezpanding, showing the plicate toldiag ol tbe leaTM.

distinct. The outer leaves are smaller and, on examining the branch, it will be seen that their internodes do not make so large a growth as the leaves in the centre of the bud.

The leaf-scars are small, soon becoming merely ridges running half round the stem.

The bud-rings are very plain and easily counted. For this reason, and because it branches freely, it is a good tree for measurements of growth, as is seen in the following tables. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 were made by a class of girls, from fourteen to sixteen, from a tree on my lawn. No. 5 was made by a pupil, whom I taught by correspondence, from a tree of the same species in another town. No. 6 was made by myself from my own tree. The measurements of the first four tables were somewhat revised by me, as they were not perfectly accurate. The pupils should always be cautioned to measure from the beginning of one set of rings to the beginning of the next.^

^ Care mast be taken to select branches well exposed to the light. Of course there are many circumstances that may aid or hinder the growth of any particular branch.

BUDS AND BRANCHES.

1JUU8 AND BUANCUES.

One question brought up by these measurements is whether there is any correspondence in gi'owth between the main axis and ite branches. It appears in these tables that there is a general correspondence, in this tree at least. In the recitation of the class, whose tables are given above (Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4), we took all the measurements of these four branches for the year 1885 and added them. We did the same for 1886, and compared the results. The

total growth for 1885 was 31^| inches; for 1886, leaving out the measui-ement of the twig whose entire growth was in that year, 109f inches or nearly 3J times as much. The proportion held in a general way throughout, there being only a single case of a branch where the growth was greater in the first year.^ But there is a point that must not be overlooked in this connection. The branches of the Beech seem to grow about equally well in the first, second, third, or any succeeding year. In some trees, as the Ash, the axillary buds make a large growth, and the succeeding terminal buds carry on the branch much more slowly; in other trees, as the Cherry, a branch grows very slowly in the first few years and then suddenly takes a

* The spring of 1886 was a remarkably early one. Thus I find in my diary of that year the following entries :—

April 17. The red maples are in full bloom, the elms almost over. The leaves of the Horsechestnut are quite large. The lilacs are nearly in leaf. April 24. We went up to Waverley and found bloodroot up, spice bush out, violets, dog-tooths and anemones, also caltha.

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