I don't believe any of you happen to have just the same passion for the blue hyacinth which I have,very certainly not for the crushed lilac-leaf-buds; many of you do not know how sweet they are.

The leaf-buds below will put forth, and grow into leafy shoots, which, turning upwards, soon hide the vase in a green circle.

This is because the dry, starchy food stored in the carrot becomes soft and soluble, and the supply of proper food and the warmth of the room make the leaf-buds able to grow.

2. An expanding leaf-bud. 3.

3. Branch, with leaf-buds expanded.

2. Branch, with leaf-buds expanding, showing the plicate folding of the leaves.

The flower-buds are larger than the leaf-buds and are in the axils of the lower leaves of the preceding year.

1. Branch in winter state: a, leaf-scars; b, bud-scars; d, leaf-buds; e, flower-buds.

4. Branch, with pistillate flowers, the leaf-bud also expanding.]

As the leaf-buds are all on the ends of the branchlets, the twigs and branches will be just below the bud-rings, and then there will be a space where no twigs nor branches will be found, till the next set of rings is reached.

How do the flower-buds differ from the leaf-buds in position and appearance?

Some of the axillary buds contain leaves and some flowers; the appearance of the leaf-buds and flower-buds being the same.

The scales of the flower-buds are somewhat gummy, but not nearly so much so as those of the leaf-buds.

2. Branch, with leaf-buds expanded.

The leaf-buds are terminal, or in the axils of the upper leaves of the preceding year; the flower buds are axillary.

The blossom-buds are larger and more rounded than the leaf-buds.

The middle bud, which is smaller and develops later, is a leaf-bud.

A root develops which pushes its way down into the soil, while the leaf-bud of the plant, which springs from the other end of the seed, works its way upward toward the light and air.

The yellow trees and the pink trees had been readily distinguished, but, although the others had not been idle, it was not so easy for little people to discern their leaf-buds.

Every small twig turns in the same direction, making the long leaf-buds at the end look like so many little spears.

In the spring any leaf-buds not required for permanent shoots can be pinched back to three or four leaves to form spurs.

Next select a branch of the current year's growth on which there is a well-formed leaf-bud.

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.

The morning was warm; a south wind was fluttering the half-unfolded leaf-buds, and spreading abroad the soft odour of violets and primroses which covered the sunny slopes.

The slow dawn was gathering under a smoky cloud with an edge of cold yellow; a thin wind was abroad; rain had fallen in the night, and the grass was wet and cool to Niger's hoofs; the earth sent up a savor, which like a soft warp was crossed by a woof of sweet odors from leaf-buds and wild flowers, and spangled here and there with a silver thread of bird songfor but few of the beast-angels were awake yet.