*^5ft ON THE INTERIOR OF PLANTS. 



greatest part of your fruit : it never recovers after this, 

 though the female may be some time before it decays. Cth. 

 The flower bud will inoculate, but not the leaf bud. 7th. 

 The line of life is never found in any leaf, but those which 

 flower in the leaf; but here it is easily detected, meander- 

 ing as in a flower sttm. 8th. Take this line out of the bud 

 ^vhen going to inoculate ; it is not a quarter of the bud, but 

 the bud grows not after such a dilapidation. — (It is the 

 same line I took out of the bean.) — Every other part of the 

 bud will renew itself, though badly ; but this deprivation is* 

 sure tokill directly, while in so young a state. It is this liae 

 in potatoes, that enables the gardener to cut them into in- 

 numerable pieces, provided an eye is there, they will grow : 

 What is an eye ? a little knot of this string, which may be 

 seen running from part to part. It is the same in all parting 

 roots: in vain you wonld endeavour to make any other part 

 grow, as I have often tri«d, but the smallest knot has the 

 eiFect. So important is this line to every plant, that it is 

 this which regulates theforra of its colour, it is this, which, 

 confining the pith, gives shape to the silver grain, or yearly 

 circles; if this (as in the nerium oleander, or zclamicum,) 

 runs into an irregular form, so al^o does the yearly shoot; 

 but if in a regular manner it shapes its course, as in the dog- 

 wood, or still more exactly in the ephedra disticha, then that 

 part of the plant follows its example with the most scrupu- 

 lous nicety. The line of life generally consists of two or 

 three rowsof circular vessels, often very differently coloured 

 from the rest of the plant, and generally yellow or a faint 

 green in the spring. It has a very peculiar juice, which is 

 thick and sweet, but often very bitter also ; and quite dif- 

 ferent from the juices of any other part of the tree; and it 

 becomes sweeter as it advances to the flower-branch, till it 

 is found almost honey. In the cryptogamise and in grasses 

 it is extremely conspicuous, as having (especially in the 

 former) fewer lines to confuse the learner. What more can 

 be said to prove its importance, except what relates to the 

 bud ? and to that I shall leave it; and turn to my next sub- 

 ject, mentioning that I include not in the present either 

 water-plants, bulbous-roots, cryptogamiae, or grasses. 

 Obiiruct'ions* • There are three different sorts of obstructions in all plants* 



Thi 



