424 Mr. Colville on the Circumstances under which Germs 



as dicotyledonous. Although, then, the leaf itself be deformed/ 

 it does not follow that the germ or leaf-bud should be abortive,- 

 but it may exist, situated like the scale itself, close to the base of 

 the original bud. A careful examination, with the assistance of a 

 microscope, will confirm this supposition. But it is not necessary 

 to have recourse to microscopical observation to substantiate the- 

 fact. If, in spring, when the buds begin to shoot, a lateral twig of 

 the preceding year's growth be cut off below the whole leaf buds, 

 but not close to the stem, in a short time the remaining small por- 

 tion of the twig will be encircled, dose by the stem, with a num- 

 ber of buds or germs developing themselves in the axilla of what 

 Avere the scales of the bud from which the twig was produced. 

 This fact completely proves my position, that the malformation of 

 the leaf, by its conversion into a scale, does not effect the existence 

 of its leaf bud. Instead of one bud, therefore, pushing its way 

 through the concentric layers of wood, as demonstrated by the au- 

 thor of the treatise on Vegetable Physiology, before quoted, it is 

 evident that there are a number of buds. Besides this, each of 

 these buds, under favourable circumstances, will be found from 

 time to time to produce other buds, which likewise accompany them 

 in their annual progress to^vards the surface of the several ligneous 

 layers. In the course of time, therefore, it follows, that these buds 

 must have greatly accumulated in number, and that the older the 

 tree, the more numerous will they be. Accordingly we find that 

 such is the fact. In the spring of the present year, my attention 

 was directed to a great number of the stems of the common furze 

 or whin, in a hedge which had been headed down in the course of 

 the winter. On every one of the stems I observed clusters of buds, 

 arranged round the stem in an order corresponding with that 

 in which the leaf buds are arranged on the young twig of furze. 

 In the clusters the buds were arranged close to each other, and the 

 number in each cluster appeared to be proportioned to the size, and 

 Consequently to the age of the stem, the clusters on the smaller 

 stems containing fewer, and on the larger a greater number of buds 

 or germs. In some species of apples, (as the codlin, the Arbroath 

 oslin, &c.) in the wild cherry, and the common birch, huge clusters 

 of such germs or buds, well known to gardeners by the name of 

 burrs, are often seen protruding from the bark. These may be 

 traced to the same origin. 



But it must be remarked, that it is not on every tree that thes^ 

 buds are connected in clusters. In heading down young trees be- 

 fore they have attained such an age as to obliterate the traces of 

 the eyes on the external bark, it will be observed, that while the 

 young buds shoot from the neighbourhood of the eyes, in some trees 

 they are at a greater, and in others at a less distance from the eye 

 itself The cause of this is evidently the greater or less angle at 

 which the buds are produced, and which is known to differ in the 



