Branches. Branches are the arms of the main body of the tree: they give the tree its shape. The buds gradually grow into lateral branches composed of the same parts as the stem. These branches then extend, broaden, and separate into twigs from which a large number of leaves spring up. The leaves sprout from the eyes of the leaf stalks and produce flowers, then fruit, which turns into seed for the propagation of the species. [1]

The swaying of branches in the wind is to trees what the heartbeat is to animals: if the branches were as inflexible as bones they might break, but since they are flexible and springy they go with the wind and withstand its violence.

There are main or ‘mother’ branches, small, feeble branches, wood branches, fruit shoots, short, slender branches, gourmands, spindly branches, lignified branches, and branches of ‘false’ wood. [2]

Short, slender branches, which are short and fine, are removed when the tree is pruned.

Gourmands spring up from the main branches or stem: they are straight, thick, and long. [3]

Wood branches are those which, being the broadest and having ‘flat’ buds, give fruit trees their shape and must be conserved in part.

Fruit shoots grow more feebly than wood branches and have ‘round’ buds: they furnish the tree with fruit and must be kept.

Branches of ‘false’ wood are shoots which grow from branches which were pruned the previous year or which are broad where they should be slender and show no sign of fruitfulness. They are usually removed.

Main or ‘mother’ branches are the tallest branches of the tree, from which all other branches grow.

Spindly branches are long and slender, show no sign of fruitfulness, and are removed as being of no use.

A lignified branch is one which, after the month of August, has grown well, hardens, and turns blackish. [4] If it remains green and villous, it has not lignified well. [5]

Notes

1. The author uses the word ‘queue’ (stalk) rather than ‘pétiole’ (petiole). See article ‘Queue’.

2. Few of these terms are retained in French or English, though, following La Quintinie, 1690, they were admitted in the eighteenth century, particularly for fruit trees (Vilmorin, in Rousseau, 1959-95, iv.1214, n. 7).

3. ‘Branches chiffonnes’, or short, slender branches, and ‘branches gourmandes’ (epicormic or water shoots, also known as gourmands), have been retained in French as horticultural terms (ibid.). See also article ‘Gourmand’.

4. See article ‘Aoûter’.

5. On the use made of this article by Rousseau for his Fragments pour un dictionnaire des termes d’usage en botanique, see Appendix 1.