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XXI. On the Origin of Buds. By the Rev. Patrick Keith, F.L.S. 



ReadJprin, 1829. 



Phytologists have been at all times much puzzled to account 

 for the origin of buds. Hence the variety of opinions which 

 they have advanced, or advocated, on the subject. Pliny be- 

 lieved them to be formed from the pith, but without giving 

 us any particular account of the ground of his belief*. Mal- 

 pighi believed them to be formed from the pith, or from the 

 cellular tissue which he regarded as viscera peculiarly destined 

 to the elaboration of the sap and protrusion of future buds -f. 

 Du Hamel seems to have entertained different opinions upon 

 this subject at different periods. In the outset of his researches 

 he believed buds to be formed from the wood or pith of the former 

 year. But what are we to say of the first year itself? Afterwards 

 he regarded them as proceeding from pre-organized germs ex- 

 isting in the proper juice, and deposited by it in the course of 

 its descent from the leaves, so as to pervade the whole plant. 

 Where the pre-organized germs were themselves formed, I think 

 we are not told. But his proof of their existence is as follows : 

 — Having taken some cuttings of a willow, he stuck them in the 

 ground, and made them, at the same time, to pass through a 

 barrel filled with earth, so as to have a portion exposed to the 

 air between the ground and the barrel, and another portion pro- 

 jecting above the top of the barrel. The part inserted in the 



* Nat. Hist. lib. xvii. cap. 21. f Amt. Plant. 13. 



ground 



