'^^"^ "^ %ienti/tc "Revidm:"^' "- ' '' 42r 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



{Continued.) 



, [The following articles were not received in sofficieut time for insertion in 

 the proper place ; but we have thought it bett^f to break iuto the <;o^tinuity 

 of our plan, than to delay the publication of papers of so much ihterest. £d.] 



ART. IV. On the Circumstances undef which Germs or Buds 

 are produced in Trees and Woody Shtubs. By Wii!.liam CoL- 

 viLii, Esq. 



The object of the present essay is to ^ndeavbtir'to eltiifciSate the 

 circumstances under which germs or buds are produced in the more 

 perfect forms of vegetable life. When it is considered that bran- 

 ches, flowers, and, consequently, fruits, are, in our temperate cli- 

 mate, all developed by the medium of buds, the inquiry must be 

 deemed one of very great importance. It has accordingly attract- 

 ied the attention of many celebrated men, and from their bbserva- 

 tions various theories have been deduced. - ' " ' 



Pliny considered that buds derived their origin from the pith,* 

 and Malpighi that they originate in the pith or cellular tissue, 

 one of the chief offices of which he believed to be the protrusion of 

 buds.t Again, Du Hamel and Knight suppose that buds originate 

 in what the former denominates pre-organized germs, existing in 

 the proper juice, and deposited by it in its descent, so as to pervade 

 the whole of the plant. J The fatter opinion is that which is now 

 generally entertained ; but, with all proper deference for the great 

 names by which it is supported, the doctrine appears to be incon- 

 sistent with the experience of practical horticulturists. 



It is a well known rule amongst gardeners that, in pruning 

 trees, care must be taken to cut a branch within from one-fourth to 

 half an inch above the eye; because, " when this is not done, and 

 half an inch or more of shoot left without a bud, the consequence 

 is, the stump dies back to the bud in the course of the season, and, 

 if not carefully cut off, will end in a decaying orifice, both unsight- 

 ly and injurious." |) In like manner Forsyth recommends, that, in 

 heading down very old cherry trees, some incisions sholild be made 

 in the branches in the spring before the operation is performed, 

 " observing to make them above the joint where the bud should 

 come out ;" because, as he remarks, " if you cut just below a joint, 

 the shoot will die as far as the next bud or joint." § 



If Du Hamel's theory were correct, however, in supposing that 



• Nat. Hist. lib. xvii, cap. 21. 



t Anat. Plant. 13. 



:{: Keith's Physiological Botany, Chap. iv. sec. 4, sub-sec. 4. 



II Loudon's Enc. of Gard. 1885. 



§ Forsyth on Fruit Trees, Cap. v. p. 71' 



