The Rev. P. Keith on the Origin of Buds. 425 



comes from his hands considerably improved. " A partir de 

 la [the terminal bud], je peux redescendre jusqu'4 la base, 

 en suivant une ligne plus ou moins droite, que je regarderai 

 comme I'origine de toutes les branches, c'est I'axe de I'arbre/' 

 Again, — " A mesure que I'augmentation en diaraetre a lieu, ce 

 Bourgeon s'eloigne de plus en plus de son point de depart ; 

 mais a tel point qu'on I'examine, on aperpoit toujours une trace 

 horizontale qui le lie a la mpelle 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 ecarte 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. I 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. 



3 I 2 month 



