I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?

Find the value of "?" in the ball picture Riddle below:

Count the number of times the letter "F" appears in the following paragraph:

FAY FRIED FIFTY POUNDS OF
SALTED FISH AND THREE POUNDS
OF DRY FENNEL FOR DINNER FOR
FORTY MEMBERS OF HER FATHER'S FAMILY.

There is a river to cross using a river raft and there are eight people (father, mother, policeman, thief, 2 daughters and 2 sons). No one knows to operate the raft except the adults and also excluding the thief. Only two people can go in the raft at a time. The raft should keep coming back and forth in order to pick and drop the people.
Rules to be followed:
Father: the father cannot stay in the raft or outside the raft without the presence of the mother.
Mother: the mother cannot stay in the raft or outside the rat without the presence of the father.
Thief: the thief is not allowed to stay with any of the family members unless there is a policeman.
Policeman: the policeman can travel with anyone.
2 sons and 2 daughters: they are not allowed to travel in the raft without the presence of an adult. They cannot either travel in the presence of only thieves without the policeman. The sons cannot be with their mothers without their father's supervision. The daughters are not allowed to be there with their fathers without the supervision of their mothers. But the daughters and the sons can be left unsupervised (as long as the other rules are applied).
What is the sequence that the people should follow in order to cross the river through the raft keeping in mind all the rules?
The rules are applicable not only in the raft but also outside the raft.

What has no start, end, or centre?

A boy collects white seashells from the sea and brings them home every night. When he has enough of them, he decides to sell them to a trader.

The trader is ready to buy the shells and he asks the boy about the quantity. At this, the boy starts calculating. He has a giant box that contains 3 mini boxes. Two of them have another mini box inside. If the giant box can hold 50 shells, how many brown shells can he sell to the trader?

The first person saw the bridge step on it and crossed,
the second person saw the bridge did not step on it but crossed,
the third person did not see the bridge did not step on it but crossed.
Who are these people?

John was driving a bus and got stuck when passing through an underpass. Then came Jacob with a needle and got the bus out of the underpass.

What did the boy do?

How can you make the following equation true by drawing only one straight line: 5+5+5=550 ?

There are three boxes of different sizes with three cupcakes inside each of the boxes in Christina's kitchen. At night her daughter wakes up and goes to the kitchen. She opens a box and eats all three cakes.

But in the morning Christina finds out that each box still had three cupcakes. How?