Abstract
VII. IF we pass through a forest of oaks, beeches, pines, and other trees, it requires but a glance to see that various natural processes are at work to reduce the number of branches as the trees become older. Every tree bears more buds than develop into twigs and branches, for not only do some of the buds at a very early date divert the food-supplies from others, and thus starve them off, but they are also exposed to the attacks of insects, squirrels, &c., and to dangers arising from inclement weather, and from being struck by falling trees and branches, &c., and many are thus destroyed. Such causes alone will account in part for the irregularity of a tree, especially of a Conifer, in which the buds may be developed so regularly that if all came to maturity the tree would be symmetrical. But that this is not the whole of the case, can be easily seen, and is of course well known to every gardener and forester.
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WARD, H. Timber, and Some of its Diseases 1 . Nature 38, 108–111 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038108a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038108a0