10 Dr Harvey's Observations on the 



part of a proposition in vegetable physiology of a still more 

 general character ; and it may conduce to a clearer apprehen- 

 sion of them, to bring that proposition formally into view. It 

 may be thus stated : — That all plants, without exception, even 

 those called perennial, are strictly annual productions, live 

 therefore only one year, and reach their full dimensions with- 

 in the year ; that is to say, that all plants spring up anew 

 each year, either from seeds or buds, and attain their matu- 

 rity within the year, — -forming in the course of it either seeds 

 or buds (or both) for the development of similar plants the 

 following year ; that as the season advances, their vital ac- 

 tions languish, and a change in the matter of their organism 

 takes place, both constituting their old age ; that at the close 

 of the season they die ; that then the structures composing 

 them speedily undergo either an entire or a partial disin- 

 tegration ; in the one case, wholly disappearing, in the other, 

 some portion remaining to serve ulterior purposes in the 

 vegetable economy of nature, but still remaining only as dead 

 vegetable matter. And, in connection with, and as forming 

 part of this general proposition, that the only difference be- 

 tween the plants called annual, and those called perennial is, 

 that while the former produce seeds only for the propagation 

 of the species, and are reared annually from seeds alone, the 

 latter produce both seeds and buds, and qua perennial, spring 

 up each year from buds ; and, therefore, that seeds and buds 

 are potentially of the same nature ; the only difference be- 

 tween them, and that not a uniform one, being, that seeds 

 are free and detached, buds fixed and adherent.* 



If, now, the question be formally proposed in regard to any 



* M. Du Petit Thouars ; see Richard, Op. cit., p. 103. — " Les bourgeons 

 donnent naissance a des scions ou jeunes branches chargees de feuilles, et le plus 

 souvent de fleurs. Chaque bourgeon a une existence en quelque sorte indepen- 

 dante de celle des autres. M. Du Petit Thouars les regarde comme analogues, 

 dans leur developpement et leur structure, aux embryons renfermes dans I'in- 

 terieur des graines, qui, par I'acte de germination, developpent une jeune tige 

 que Ton pent comparer, avec juste raison, au scion produit par revolution d'un 

 bourgeon. Aussi donne-t-il a ces derniers le nom d'embryons fixes ou adherens, 

 par opposition a celui d'etj^yons litres, conserve pour ceux renfermes dans I'in- 

 terieur de la graine." 



