Bud (botany)

“ Definite annual Growth from winter buds is marked in most of the shoots from strong buds, such as those of the Horse-chestnut and Hickory (Fig. 72, 73) . Such a bud generally contains, already formed in miniature, all or a great part of the leaves and joints of stem it is to produce, makes its whole growth in length in the course of a few weeks, or sometimes even in a few days, and then forms and ripens its buds for the next year's similar growth. ”

“ Every incipient shoot is a Bud (12) . A stem continues its growth by its terminal bud; it branches by the formation and development of lateral buds. As normal lateral buds occupy the axils of leaves, they are called axillary buds. As leaves are symmetrically arranged on the stem, the buds in their axils and the branches into which axillary buds grow partake of this symmetry. The most conspicuous buds are the scaly winter-buds of most shrubs and trees of temperate and cold climates ”

“ That from which a stem with its leaves is continued, or a new stem (i. e. branch) originated, is a Bud. The most conspicuous and familiar buds are those of most shrubs and trees, bearing buds formed in summer or autumn, to grow the following [Pg 13] spring. But every such point for new growth may equally bear the name. When there is such a bud between the cotyledons in the seed or seedling it is called the Plumule. This is conspicuous enough in a bean (Fig. 29.) , where the young leaf of the new growth looks like a little plume, whence the name, plumule. ”

“ The body c has lost its leaves through some accident, and its growth has ceased. In other words, the parts at aaaa are like the shoot fh, except that they are shorter, and they are of the same age. One grew from the end or terminal bud of the main branch, and the others from the side or lateral buds. Parts or bodies that bear leaves are, therefore, branches.—The buds at bbbb have no leaves, and they remain the same [119] size that they were a year ago. They are dormant. The only way for a mature bud to grow is by making leaves for itself, for a leaf will never stand below it again. ”

“ WINTER AND DORMANT BUDS
A bud is a growing point, terminating an axis either long or short, or being the starting point of an axis. All branches spring from buds. In the growing season the bud is active ”

“ The outer scales enfold the whole bud, and each succeeding pair cover all within. They are joined, and it is frequently difficult to tell where the suture is, though it can generally be traced at the apex of the bud. ”

“ Everything was prepared, and even formed, beforehand: the short joints of stem in the bud have only to lengthen, and to separate the leaves from each other so that they may unfold and grow. Only a small part of the vegetation of the season comes directly from the seed, and none of the earliest vernal vegetation. ”

“ The bulb-shaped spot in the heart of the uppermost of the five projections in Fig. 6 is the root of the bud.
2 For more accurate information the reader may consult Professor Lindley’s Introduction to Botany (Longman, 1848) , vol. i. p. 245, et seqq.
3 Fig. 11 is a shoot of the line, drawn on two sides, to show its continuous curve in one direction, and alternated curves in another. The buds, which may be seen to be at equal heights in the two figures, are exquisitely proportioned in their distances. There is no end to the refinement of system, if we choose to pursue it. ”

“ Consequently they form and ripen no terminal bud protected by scales, and the upper axillary buds are produced so late in the season that they have no time to mature, nor has their wood time to solidify and ripen. Such stems therefore commonly die back from the top in winter, or at least all their upper buds are small and feeble; so the growth of the succeeding year takes place mainly from the lower axillary buds, which are more mature. ”

“ Trees or shrubs, with resinous or milky acrid juice, dotless alternate leaves, and small, often polygamous, regular, 5-merous flowers, but the ovary 1-celled and 1-ovuled, with 3 styles or stigmas.—Petals imbricated in the bud. Fruit mostly drupaceous. Seed without albumen, borne on a curved stalk that rises from the base of the cell. Stipules none. Juice or exhalations often poisonous. ”

“ From what we have seen since of bud structure, we may now make our type more complete by giving each bud a root proportioned to its size. And our elementary type of tree plant will be as in Fig. 46.
§ 7. Now these three buds, though differently placed, have all one mind. No bud has an oblique mind. Every one would like, if he could, to grow upright, and it is because the midmost one has entirely his own way in this matter, that he is largest. He is an elder brother;—his birthright is to grow straight towards the sky. ”

“ By this means the bud is, as it were, planted in the bark of the tree.
The worsted must not be bound exactly over the bud, or it might bruise or break it. The bud should have the appearance of peeping out between the turns of worsted. When the operation is finished it can be left a week or two, and by that time you will know whether it has taken or not by the appearance of the bud. As soon as you are sure that it has taken, the ties or worsted can be loosened, not taken off; they may want relaxing several times as the little bud swells and grows. ”

“ A new leaf is sent up every year from the tip end of the root-stock, and the old, dropping off, leaves a sear, which is the "seal." Buds formed on these underground stems are protected from too great changes of temperature by a few inches of soil. Those buds that lie on the surface must be protected by the dead leaves which fall in autumn. They, the buds, are the real "babes in the wood," you see.
Our baby bud, just like children, must have nourishment as well as protection in order to grow in spring. This is provided by the thick leaves that cover, or by the stem, or in some other way. ”

“ From amid the crown of leaves shoots forth a bud upon a stalk, and resembling a large green flower-bud. This shoots up rapidly, and becomes as rapidly too heavy for its stalk, which bends under its weight. The bud now bends down to the stem and grows as large probably as a cocoa-nut, its form being like that of a Provence rose-bud, and of a dark violet colour. I saw upon almost all banana-trees, even on those which bore rich clusters of ripe fruit, this immense violet-coloured bud hanging, and was not a little curious to know all about it. ”

“ The largest bud grows on top. This is where the beautiful flower cluster that comes out in May lies hidden.
The smaller buds that grow lower down the stem hold only leaves. You see that these buds grow in pairs, one bud opposite another, and always above a sort of scar on the twig. This scar was made last fall by the breaking-off of a leaf.
Perhaps you fancy that these buds have only just made their appearance.
Fig. 129
If you have any such idea as that, you are quite wrong. ”

“ And who will take the time to look, will find the young bud there;
The young bud nestled snug and warm against the winter's cold;
The young bud being sheltered by the knowledge of the old.
And when the spring shall come again—and gentle turns the day,
The youthful bud will swell with strength and thrust the old away;
The youthful bud will seek the breeze and hunger for the sun,
And down to earth will fall the old with all its duty done. ”

“ A marked bud-variation is of very rare occurrence, but in many cases the tendency of plants raised from seeds to differ from the parents is so great that choice varieties are propagated entirely by buds. ”

“ By their more rapid growth than the stem, they reach above the growing-point, and, folding over each other, cover it more or less completely. As the stem elongates, the leaves upon the older portion are gradually separated, and an ordinary stem, with its leaves arranged at regular intervals, results. A bud is simply a young stem, with its undeveloped leaves. A developed stem is a series of similar parts, those parts being a leaf with a portion of the stem above and below it, each borne upon its predecessor, and in turn bearing the next one in the series. ”

“ Although roots proceed usually from the base of the stem or stock, they may also be produced from the base of any bud, especially if the bud lie along the ground, or is otherwise placed by nature or art in circumstances favourable for their development, or indeed occasionally from almost any part of the plant. ”

“ The production of a flower is preceded by an arrest of vegetation; this is obvious: the current of the plant's life becomes changed, the growth of the leaves is checked, the lengthening of the branches is arrested as the flower-bud forms; moreover, there is a close relationship in a large majority of flowers between the outer envelopes of the flower and the scales of a leaf-bud; this is especially so in regard to the venation, and is admitted by all morphologists. So far, then, it may be said that the production of a flower, like that of a bud, is due to a diminution of vegetative action ”

“ A week spent in the rich soil and hot, humid atmosphere of the forcing-house causes the bud to swell and begin to grow. In ten days it is seen to have really made some appreciable growth. At the end of fourteen days the creamy-white, tightly-folded foliage leaves and the tip of the flower-stem are seen to have developed, the leaves broadening out somewhat about the eighteenth day. In twenty-one days the still folded leaves have gained a delicate, pale greenish hue, and the flower-buds have begun to make themselves plainly visible upon the flower-stem. ”

“ At the same time every bud on a shoot has the capacity to form a new plant if placed in suitable conditions, as the horticultural practice of propagation by cuttings shows; in nature we see Vegetative reproduction.plants spreading by the rooting of their shoots, and buds we know may be freely formed not only on stems but on leaves and on roots. Where detachable buds are produced, which can be transported through the air to a distance, each of them is an incipient shoot which may have a root, and there is always reserve-food stored in some part of it. In essentials such a bud resembles a seed. ”

“ Those, however, who have not got a theory to save by [546] putting anomalies out of sight, may be inclined to think that the occurrence of buds where they are avowedly unconnected with nodes, and are axillary to nothing, tells very much against the assumption that every bud implies a node and a corresponding foliar organ. And they may also see that the development of these adventitious buds at places where there is excess of nutritive materials, favours the view above set forth. ”

“ The root and a little of the lower stalk is from a seed, and upon this has been grafted or spliced with soft bands and wax, a bud from some choice kind of peach or apple or plum, or whatever the tree is to be, and this new bud grows and forms the tree. Sometimes a bud of the choice kind is merely inserted beneath the bark of another tree and grows and forms a new limb. By and by, when it bears fruit, the fruit will be of the kind that was on the choice tree, but the seed, though it looks just the same, may be altogether different. ”

“ I have patiently watched that mysterious process; when the bud opens, the petals are rolled tightly together and separate with an effort. The first one that frees itself stretches out like a bird's wing, then throws itself backward and resumes its twisted position. ”

“ But it is true that the conditions in which a bud grows render it liable to extrinsic ills not incidental to a plant springing from seed. A seed, emitting its roots directly into the earth, is liable only to its own ills; a bud or graft emitting roots, through the alburnum of the stock on which it is established, into the earth, is subject to the infirmities of the stock as well as to its own. Thus a healthy seed produces a healthy plant. A healthy bud may produce a feeble plant, because inoculated upon a diseased branch or stem. ”

“ It is the common practice to draw a budding-knife over the strings, on the side opposite the bud, completely severing them and allowing them to fall off as they will. If the strings are left on too long they will constrict the stem and often kill the bud, and they also have a tendency to cause the bud to “break” or begin to grow. The bud should remain perfectly dormant until spring, for if it should begin to grow it will be injured and perhaps killed by the winter. ”

“ It is manifest, then, that the plant which springs from a bud is as really a new plant as that which springs from a seed; and it is equally true, that a seed may convey the weakness and diseases of its parent with as much facility as a bud or a graft does. ”

“ This strange little plant will grow very rapidly when put into any sweet watery substance. It sends out a bud which grows larger and larger until in a half hour the bud is as large as the old plant. It may then break loose and grow other buds, just like the mother plant. ”

“ As each bud contains in itself the rudiments of a plant, and would, if separated from its parent vegetable, become in all respect s similar to it, Linnæus, to shew the wonderful fertility of Nature, has made a calculation, from which it appears, that in a trunk scarce exceeding a span in breadth, no less than ten thousand buds may be produced. ”

“ Flowers are produced from flower-buds, just as leaf-shoots arise from leaf-buds. These two kinds of buds have a resemblance to each other as regards the arrangement and the development of their parts; and it sometimes happens, from injury and other causes, that the part of the axis which, in ordinary cases, would produce a leaf-bud, gives origin to a flower-bud. A flower-bud has not in ordinary circumstances any power of extension by the continuous development of its apex. ”