Branchlet

“ Tree attaining a height of thirty feet or more, vigorous in growth; trunk sometimes a foot in diameter; trunk and branches rough and shaggy becoming furrowed in age; bark gray-brown, thick and containing deposits of red cork cells which show as bright [65] red blotches or as thick layers when the bark is sectioned, these deposits, especially in quantity, characterizing the species; branches very spreading and open, twiggy, slender, thorny; branchlets light green at first, becoming reddish-brown, glabrous and glossy; lenticels few, large, very coarse, raised, characteristic of the species. ”

“ A tree, sometimes 50°—60° high, with a short trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and stout erect ultimately spreading branches forming a handsome open irregular round-topped head, and branchlets light green often tinged with red and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, light brown slightly tinged with orange color during their first winter, and ultimately paler. Winter-buds depressed-globose, partly immersed in the bark, covered by few closely imbricated ovate rounded light chestnut-brown ciliate conspicuous scales. ”

“ It is a branch, gathered from that prettiest feature of mountain scenery,—a moss-grown fir-tree. You will see them at every step, standing all-lovely in this graceful robe. It is, in color, a vivid pea-green, with little hard flowers which look more like dots than anything else, and contrast beautifully with the deeper verdure of the fir. The branch which I brought home I have placed above my window. It is three feet in length, and as large round as a person's arm; and there it remains, a cornice wreathed with purple-starred tapestry, whose wondrous beauty no upholsterer can ever match. ”

“ The systems of branching are indeed infinite, and could not be exemplified by any number of types; but here are two common types, in section, which will enough explain what I mean.
§ 16. If a tree branches with a concave tendency, it is apt to carry its boughs to the outer curve of limitation, as at A, Fig. 67, and if with a convex tendency, as at B. In either case the vertical section, or profile, of a bough will give a triangular mass, terminated by curves, and elongated at one extremity. These triangular masses you may see at a glance, prevailing in the branch system of any tree in winter. ”

“ How cunningly they go to work to break a branch that is out of reach; first the lowest leaf is gently taken in the lips and pulled down until the mouth can catch hold of some hanging twig — along this it is worked, and so from twig to branch, a greater strain being exerted as the branches increase in size, until finally the main limb of the branch is seized, and bent and twisted until broken. Often they try for one branch time after time, for having set their minds on a particular morsel, nothing will satisfy them until they have it. ”

“ As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ”

“ The phrase, to destroy “root and branch,” meaning to destroy utterly, taken originally from Malachi iv. 1, was made famous in 1641 by the so-called “Root and Branch” Bill and Petition for the abolition of episcopal government, in which petition occurred the sentence, “That the said government, with all its dependencies, roots and branches, be destroyed.” Among technical senses of the word “branch” are: the certificate of proficiency given to pilots by Trinity House; and in siege-craft a length of trench forming part of a zigzag approach. ”

“ The word is also applied to many objects which are characterized by branching ends, as the tuning-fork, with two branching metal prongs, which on being struck vibrates and gives a musical note, used to give a standard of pitch; to the branching into two streams of a river, or the junction where a tributary runs into the main river; and in the human body, to that part where the legs branch off from the trunk. ”

“ Every branch is an entire plant. All the tissues and systems are found in it. Tracheæ free themselves from the stalk, pass towards the circumference, break through the bark and carry with them the liber, whose external layer again becomes bark. The branch is only an elongated bud. The stalk is the soil or the root of the branches. Branches, that have been cut off and stuck in the earth, grow. There is nothing contradictory, in the tracheal fascicles of the branch growing downwards into the stalk. A branched tree is a complete wood. ”

“ If the branches are not close enough to hide him, he gets as much as possible behind a large branch, and stretches himself along it—at the same time his tail, which at other times is bushy, seems to contract, so that he is less visible. ”

“ DEAR LORD BUTE,
I must try and write a few lines, asking you to pardon all defects.
The real Palm Branch was most welcome, with its special blessing: it is behind me as I write, and many happy thoughts and messages does it bring. God bless you for your most kind thought. I intend to forward it in due time to Gerald Rendall (late head of Harrow, then Fellow of Trin. Coll., Cambridge, now Principal of University College, Liverpool) , as my share in furnishing his new home: he was married this vacation. The students, male and female, will be glad to see what a real Palm Branch is like. ”

“ To the North its hundred branches.
Whosoe'er a branch has taken,
Has obtained eternal welfare;
Who secures himself a tree-top,
He has gained the master magic;
Who the foliage has gathered,
Has delight that never ceases. ”

“ At the bottom of the hill lies Brankly itself, with its orchards and homestead and fields of golden grain, and its little river, with the little saw-mill going as pertinaciously as if it, like the river, had resolved to go on for ever. Cattle are there, sheep are there, horses and wagons are there, wealth and prosperity are there, above all happiness is there, because there also dwells the love of God. ”

“ I have before pointed out to you the general resemblance of these branch flakes to an extended hand; but they may be more accurately represented by the ribs of a boat. If you can imagine a very broad-headed and flattened boat applied by its keel to the end of a main branch, [252] as in Fig. 45., the lines which its ribs will take, and the general contour of it, as seen in different directions, from above and below; and from one side and another, will give you the closest approximation to the perspectives and foreshortenings of a well-grown branch-flake. Fig. 25. ”

“ One branch, which was hugely thick and strong, and ran horizontally at a small height from the ground, was pointed out as the principal gibbet, on which human sacrifices, thousands in number, have been offered century after century. ”

“ It is constantly held up to derision by those people who are unaware of the next rule upon the subject, which is, that as soon as a quartering comes into the possession of a cadet branch—which quartering is not enjoyed by the head of the house—all necessity for any marks of difference at all is considered to be ended, provided that that quartering is always displayed—and that cadet branch then begins afresh from that generation to redifference. ”

“ If it is necessary on the weak side, it is not done until the latest possible moment. This operation we may style bud-nipping, since the word ‘bud,’ by which we designate the germ of the future branch when it is still enveloped in scales, applies also for the sake of convenience to the branch already developed but still young and tender. ”

“ A large branch, heavy with the weight of ice and sleet, snapped from a tree near by and crashed to the ground, but they did not stir.
Angry mutterings came to them through the evergreen branches and shrieked off over the mountains like wind-tossed spirits. Through the long hours they made hardly a movement. ”

“ With outstretched arms they seize one branch, with the feet they clasp a parallel one, about half their height lower down, and, using the upper branch as a rail, they walk along the lower one so quickly, though without the least sign of effort, that a man walking underneath must exert himself vigorously to keep pace with them. ”

“ Branks, brangks, n. (seldom in sing.) a scold's bridle, having a hinged iron framework to enclose the head and a bit or gag to fit into the mouth and compress the tongue. [Scot.; ety. very obscure; cf. M. E. bernak, whence Barnacle and Brake; Ger. pranger, the pillory, Dut. prang, a fetter; the Gael. brangus, brangas, is most prob. borrowed.]
Brankursine, brangk′ur-sin, n. the plant Acanthus, called also Bear's-breech. [Low L. branca, ursina, a bear's paw.] ”

“ A low, overhanging branch of a tree is chosen, and as many as it will bear, old and young, men and women, straddle it; and, holding on to the higher overhanging branches, they swing up and down with as much spring as they can get out of the branch they are on. ”

“ Some folks don't seem to care what they spend when they come here, and no sooner arrive at the Branch than they Branch out into all sorts of extravagance. There is some superb horseflesh here just now, and the fastest nags may be seen doing their Level best on the Smooth Beach. ”

“ A branch as thick as a man’s thigh is chosen in the early spring, and is cut off just beneath a group of these points, all the smaller branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet deep in the ground. ”

“ He seems always to choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, on approaching which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself across to the next branch, on which he walks along as before. ”

“ One branch passes close to the hills to its east, the other runs further eastwards, and again divides into two, of which the western branch runs a short way and is lost, and the eastern branch runs past Islâmpur. ”

“ When the body is much larger in diameter than the branch, a hole may be bored in the former to receive the end of the latter, by [II-286] giving to the branch end a stem, as in Fig. 2820, and then cutting in the body a recess for the branch end and its additional stem. This recess may be cut out in the lathe, chucking the body as in Fig. ”

“ Cp. brandle.
brank, buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E. Anglian word (EDD.) .
bransle, a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘bransle, a brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’ (Cotgr.) . Cp. brawl.
brant, steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.) . OE. (Anglian) brant. ”

“ In thousands of instances the great trunks sheathed in rough thick bark rise straight and massive, with but a slight decrease in diameter, to a height of upward of 80 feet before the first branch is given off. ”

“ Below the point at which the digitals branch off from the plantar there is always more likelihood of the part we are attempting to render insensible being supplied by another and adventitious branch, or a branch that, as regards its direction, is abnormally distributed. ”

“ Always cut close to the parent branch, never leaving a stub no matter how young or old the tree.
Cuts of lateral branches should be made just at the shoulder of the branch where it joins the parent. A cut behind the shoulder will not heal, neither will one too far ahead of it. ”

“ Tho’ the Corruption of our English Orthography indulges some appearance of Distinction between Brand and Braund, yet in Effect they are one and the same thing. The ancient Manor of Brand’s, alias Braund’s, near Kilburn in Middlesex, was the very Manor-House of Sir John Brand, and is call’d Brand’s to this Day, altho’ at present it be in the Possession of the Family of Marsh.
What Honours are therefore due to One who is in a Direct Male Line, an Immediate Descendant from the Loins of that Great Man! ”

“ Master Branchu was summoned: “A very good gentleman your father is,” said he to Paul, when it was settled that they should begin the following day; “he sets people to work when the best hands are being turned off everywhere, and old fellows like me, who cannot go soldiering, would have a hard time of it all the winter. I shall go and drink his health with Jean Godard the carpenter, who will be desperate glad like myself.”
The rest of the day was employed in marking the principal dimensions on the plan, so as to be able to set out the excavations. ”

“ The afternoon was rainy, in spite of which I drove to Busson Hill, and had a talk with Bran about the vile caterpillar blights on the wild plum trees, and asked him if it would not be possible to get some sweet grafts from Mr. C—— for some of the wild fruit trees, of which there are such quantities. Perhaps, however, they are not worth grafting. Bran promised me that the people should not be allowed to encumber the paths and the front of their houses with unsightly and untidy heaps of oyster shells. ”