A growth or flower bud (" axillary bud ") often appears in the axil.
The sepals are generally organs for the protection of the flower-bud; the petals, for attracting insects by their conspicuous form and color; the foliage-leaves, for the assimilation of carbon dioxide and other associated functions.
These two kinds of buds have a resemblance to each other as regards the arrangement and the development of their parts; and it sometimes happens, from injury and other causes, that the part of the axis which, in ordinary cases, would produce a leaf-bud, gives origin to a flower-bud.
A flower-bud has not in ordinary circumstances any power of extension by the continuous development of its apex.
Caper This is the unopened flower bud of a plant which grows wild among the rocks of Greece an Northern Africa.