CHAPTER XXIII.

THE COVERINGS OF THE BUDS.

[Sidenote: Scales of the horse-chestnut bud.]

You remember that I mentioned to you the brown scales on the buds of the horse-chestnut. I will tell you what these scales are for: they cover up the tender bud from the cold of winter and early spring. These scales are quite thick, as you can see. They are glued together, too, quite tightly by a sticky substance. They make in this way a close little case for the bud, to keep it snug from the cold air. When the weather gets warm enough the swelling bud pushes the scales apart. And when the leaves are out these scales drop off, because there is no more use for them.

In cold climates the buds are always protected in this way by a covering. The buds that you see in the spring do not begin in the spring. They are formed the year before, a little while before the leaves begin to fall. And as they form they loosen the leaves, and soon push them off.

[Sidenote: Treasures in the buds in winter.]

Now in these little buds are locked up all the leaves and flowers that are to come out the next spring. The precious treasures of another year are in these buds. They must be kept safe, then, through the cold winter. And so they have tight coverings to guard them from the cold. They are all this time quite small, but they are ready to grow whenever the warm weather comes. If you should pick off the covering of one of these buds in the winter the cold air would freeze it, and it would die.

These coverings have been called by some one the “winter-cradles” of the buds. It is a very good name for them. The little buds in these cradles rock back and forth in the cold winds of winter, and are as secure from harm as the little baby in its cradle in its nice warm home, shut in from the wintry blasts.

And notice another thing. The inside of these cradles is lined with a soft down. This is the bud’s little blanket to keep it warm in its cradle.

In warm climates the buds do not have these “winter-cradles,” for there is no need of them. The buds of the orange-tree and lemon-tree have no coverings.

[Sidenote: The care which the Creator takes of buds in the winter.]

It is thus that God takes care of the tender bud. He always gives it a covering when it needs one to keep it from the cold. But in the sunny south he leaves the bud naked to the pleasant warm air. To put a thick covering over it there would do it harm. It would be like a man’s putting on a heavy overcoat in mid-summer.

_Questions._--What is said of the scales of the horse-chestnut bud? What is said of the buds in cold climates? Why is it very necessary to have the buds kept safe through the winter? What very good name has been given to the coverings of buds? How is it with the buds in warm climates? What is said of the care which God takes of buds?