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Updated: May 21, 2025
Phyllotaxy is not yet to be taken up, but the pupils should be shown the different angles of the branching of the twigs, and told to compare them with Beech and Elm. In which buds are the flower-clusters? Are there flowers and leaves in the same buds? What are the scales of the bud? How are the leaves folded in the bud? How do the axillary and terminal buds differ?
Looking along the shoot, I find that every six buds stand in the same line: the sixth bud is over the first, seventh over the second, eighth over the third. This is the leaf-arrangement or phyllotaxy of the apple-tree, expressed by the fraction 2/5.
Phyllotaxy. The subject of leaf-arrangement is an extremely difficult one, and it is best, even with the older pupils, to touch it lightly. The point to be especially brought out is the disposition of the leaves so that each can get the benefit of the light. This can be seen in any plant and there are many ways in which the desired result is brought about.
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.
These arrangements can be found in nature in cones, the scales of which are modified leaves and follow the laws of leaf-arrangement. By Chauncey Wright. Memoirs Amer. Acad., IX, p. 389. This essay is an abstruse mathematical treatise on the theory of phyllotaxy.
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