the Magnolia may be used in its
stead, but it is not nearly so simple an example of the main points to be
observed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Reader in Botany. VII. Trees in Winter.]

MAGNOLIA UMBRELLA.

The bud may be examined by removing the scales with a knife, as in
Horsechestnut, and also by cutting sections. 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. On the back is a thick
stalk, which is the base of the leaf-stalk. Remove the scales by cutting
carefully through a single pair, opposite the leaf-stalk, and peeling
them off. The scales are modified stipules, instead of leaf-stalks, as in
Horsechestnut. The outer pair are brown and thick, the inner green, and
becoming more delicate and crumpled as we proceed toward the centre of the
bud. The leaves begin with the second or third pair of scales. The first
one or two are imperfect, being small, brown, and dry. The leaves grow
larger towards the centre of the bud. They are covered with short,
silky hairs, and are folded lengthwise, with the inner surface within
(_conduplicate_). In the specimens I have examined I do not see much
difference in size between the buds with flowers and those without. In
every bud examined which contained a flower, there was an axillary bud in
the axil of the last, or next to the last, leaf. This bud is to continue
the interrupted branch in the same way as in Horsechestnut.

There are from six to ten good leaves, in the buds that I have seen. Those
without flowers contain more leaves, as in Horsechestnut. In the centre of
these buds the leaves are small and undeveloped. The flower is very easy
to examine, the floral envelopes, stamens and pistils, being plainly
discernible. The bud may also be studied in cross-section. This shows the
whole arrangement. The plan is not so simple as in Horsechestnut, where
the leaves are opposite. The subject of leaf-arrangement should be passed
over until phyllotaxy is taken up.

The scars on the stem differ from Horsechestnut in having no distinct
bands of rings. The scales, being stipules, leave a line on each side of
the leaf-scar, and these are separated by the growth of the internodes.
In the Beech, the scales are also stipules; but, whereas in the Magnolia
there are only one or two abortive leaves, in the Beech there are eight or
nine