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



year of the stem's growth, before it has acquired anything of 

 horizontal extent, that constitute the leading branches. 



Still it may be said that the origin of the bud is not yet 

 fully accounted for, as it is its path that has been traced and 

 rendered visible rather than its source. If we are to trace 

 buds to their earliest indications of existence, it will be neces- 

 sary to go back to the seed. In many seeds the rudiments of 

 buds may be discovered in the protuberance that is usually 

 formed at the collar of the embryo plant*, at first a simple vesi- 

 cle ; afterwards, as germination advances, an enlarged globule; 

 at last, in the matured shoot, a distinctly visible body ; one or 

 more buds crowning the shoot, some protruding from its sur- 

 face, and many, as it appears, imbedded in the alburnum. How 

 have they been generated? and how dispersed or distributed 

 through the plant ? Either we must suppose that the embryo 

 plant contains already in miniature all the buds to which it can 

 ever possibly give development, arranged, as we must also sup- 

 pose, in a determinate order, and waiting only the occurrence 

 of such conditions as shall afford the nutriment necessary to ve- 

 getable growth, and give dispersion or distribution to the buds 

 by the general expansion of the whole. Or we must suppose 

 that the bud or buds already existing in the embryo plant have 

 the power of generating new buds, which the plant has the power 

 of propelling to their appointed stations. 



The first hypothesis, which is that of Leibnitz, is encumbered 

 with many difficulties, as embracing the doctrine of the invo- 

 lution of all future generations in the first individual of the spe- 

 cies ; — thus, baffling the powers of the most acute imagination, 

 and explaining nothing after all. It is indeed so thoroughly 

 enigmatical as to stand but very little chance of being ever gene- 

 rally adopted. Yet if we embrace, without modification, the 



♦ Keith's Phys. Bot. ii. 389. 



doctrine 



