"md Å — i » 
TM o ETT ce RE, n E " 
The Rev. P. Keiru on the Origin of Buds. 495 
comes from his hands considerably improved. ‘A partir de 
là [the terminal bud], je peux redescendre jusqu'à la base, 
en suivant une ligne plus ou moins droite, que je regarderai 
comme l'origine de toutes les branches, c'est l'axe de l'arbre." 
Again,—** A mesure que l'augmentation en diametre a lieu, ce 
Bourgeon s'eloigne de plus en plus de son point de depart ; 
mais à tel point qu'on l'examine, on apercoit toujours une trace 
horizontale qui le lie à la moelle centrale. Ainsi, si, comme 
cela arrive quelquefois, on en trouve un sur un tronc d'un pied 
d'epaisseur, il est evident qu'il se sera écarté horizontalement 
de six pouces de son point de depart." 
This view of the subject approaches very near to that of 
the writer who now advances the doctrine in opposition to the 
views of Du Hamel and of Knight. Indeed they are both very . 
similar to the view of it that was originally exhibited by Du Ha- 
mel himself. Having taken the trunk of a Lime-tree of about 
four or five inches in diameter, and about the middle of which 
there was a bud, and having cut it asunder obliquely in the di- 
rection of the bud, Du Hamel found that he could trace a ray 
of a whiter shade than the rest of the wood, extending from the 
pith to the bud. Hence he concluded that the bud is formed 
from the pith, and that the ray extending from the one to the 
other is with propriety denominated a medullary ray *. "This 
conclusion he afterwards abandoned; but it is evident that it 
embraces the doctrine in question, the ground of which I have 
lately been induced to investigate with some care. 1 had been 
looking out, in the course of last summer, for a good subject of 
inspection, and found rather opportunely the stem of a Willow 
of about twelve or thirteen years old, which having been felled 
in the preceding winter or spring, was left lying on the ground, 
at its full length, and in rather a moist situation, and was in the 
* Phys. des Arb. liv. i. chap. iii. 
312 month 
