“Now, boys,” said Uncle George, “we are going to find out what buds are. Here is a twig of the horse-chestnut tree, and here is one of the beech tree. Do you notice any difference between them?”
“Oh, yes,” said Frank, “they are very different. The beech buds are longer.”
“Anything else?” his uncle asked.
“The horse-chestnut buds have sticky stuff all over them,” said Tom.
“Quite right,” said Uncle George. “On the beech twig the buds are placed singly on opposite sides. On the horse-chestnut twig the buds are in pairs.”
Then Uncle George cut one of the buds through with his knife, and they saw that a great number of thick scales were folded round a little green thing in the centre. They saw also a mass of woolly stuff between the scales and the little green object.
Uncle George gave each of the boys a twig, and showed them how to take the scales off the top bud with a large needle. The outside scales were not easily removed. They were so sticky—they stuck to everything that touched them, and soon the boys’ fingers were covered with the sticky stuff. As they went on with their work, they found out that the inner scales were not sticky. At last they got all the scales off, and there was nothing left but a tiny woolly mass. On teasing out, this woolly bundle was found to be a little branch bearing small leaves. Every part of it was covered with wool.
Twigs of Beech and Chestnut, showing Buds.
“Now,” said Uncle George, “you can perhaps tell me what a bud is.”