On the Natural History of Vegetables, 1 69 



trees. In individual plants, as most of the palms, it remains 

 stationary ; no part of it being detached into either roots or 

 stem, but only small portions of it into each seed. All jointed 

 stems, whether herbaceous or ligneous, contain a portion of 

 the crown at each joint ; and all plants which increase them- 

 selves by runners, as the strawberry, being the living progeny 

 of the crown, are furnished with portions thereof. In all annual 

 plants the principle of the crown is perpetuated by being con- 

 veyed to the seeds, as in wheat ; into the stem and seeds, as in 

 the balsam; and into the stem, seeds, and tubers, as in the potato. 

 In the generality of trees and shrubs the crown is fugitive, 

 and diffused over the whole plant, roots, stem, branches, 

 shoots, and seeds. An exception to this exists in the pine or 

 fir tribe, which (save one) never are furnished with any por- 

 tion of the crown to throw up suckers from the root. 



On many plants the crown shifts its place annually. In the 

 tulip, narcissus, &c., it is a thin plate, which forms at the base 

 of the bulb, discharging the last year's crown and roots belovv. 

 In the strawberry, asparagus, &c., the new crown is formed at 

 the side of, and rather above, the old one. In some plants it 

 is constantly rising from a lower to a higher station on the 

 stem, as appears on the annona; on which plant, it also may 

 be observed, portions of it are detached to the base and crown 

 of the fruit as well as into the seeds. Other plants are en- 

 dowed with the property of removing from their old to new 

 stations by the lateral progress of the crowns of the roots, as 

 the water lily, and all those called " walking plants." 



Even the leaves of some plants partake so much of the 

 structure of the branches, as to have portions of the vital crown 

 lodged in them, as Zygophyllum ; others in the petiole of the 

 leaf, as Qohce^a ; and in one genus detached parts of it are found 

 in cup-like appendages on the surface of the plant, as in 

 Ziehen. 



There is a curious instance of the motability of the crown 

 observable in cereal plants, and probably all those having 

 jointed stems ; viz. if a seed of wheat happens to be buried too 

 deep, the seed vegetates, producing roots and a stem, with its 

 leaves appearing above ground ; but the first crown being far- 

 ther from the surface than is proper for the nature of the 

 plant, the second and third joints are substituted in its stead, 

 they throwing out the coronal roots to perfect the plant, while 

 the seminal roots and first interjoint of the stem are left to 

 perish. 



All these different dispositions of the crown of the root 

 occur in the vegetable kingdom, and, wherever they exist, they 

 are capable of emitting roots and stems like the parent crown 



Vol II. — No. 7. n 



