262 



ON THE INTERIOR OF FLANTS. 



In my next, the reader shall know as much as I am ac- 

 quainted with, and that is but little. 

 Annual for- j^ all trees and shruhs, one row of new wood is formed 



wood!" " ^^^^ year; but this is not all, some new wood is always ge- 



nerated to accompany each bu-l. Small plants, however, 

 the pith of which is little, if at all separated; and where the 

 line of life rnns from the middle of the pith in various vessels 

 to the exterior, all form two, if not three rows of wood each 

 \ear. Cabbage, and its oifspring-, also turnips, carrots, &c., 

 ihow one for every time of floweiinj^, whether dilapidation 

 takes place in the part above, as in the cabbage aiid cauli- 

 flower, &c,, or not. The same accession of new wood takes 

 place in the i-oot also. There are many very extraordinary 

 points of construction in these small plants ; such as the 

 bastard vessels running often through the {)ith, and across 

 to'the "Wood at the otherside; and innumerable other things, 

 which, belonf^jing- rather to peculiar plants, than to nature 

 in general, I shall therefore leave to the next letter, and turn 

 to my last and chief subject. 

 Puds pass On this subject, it is quite astonishing to me that any one 



through ihe should differ, since the evidence is so exact and plain. If 

 we look at the floor of a room, a piece of wood, a tree, i<;c., they 

 should all togetl'cr or separately teach us, that the greatest part 

 of the buds must pass through the wood; since there is no 

 wood that is not marked with them to the edge of the pith, 

 that is to the line of life. In one of my former letters, 1 

 ■ gave a long account of the formation of the leaf-bud, men- 

 tioning how much it differed from the flower, or leaf and 

 Formation ©f flower-buds. Formed almost wholly of the bark and inner 

 ihe leaf-bud, ^g^k, and placed there, it is the lengthening of the threads 

 of the bark, which weave the leaves; and all tiie time they 

 are forming, the bud remains stationary ; nor do they draw 

 any assistance from within, except a little wood in the shape 

 of nourishing veasels, which surrounds the spiral wire. But 

 and of the ^^^y ^•l^'^i'^nt is the formation of the flower-bud. Botanists 

 flower.bud. have perceived this difference, and yet appear to derive them 

 both from the same source. Most physiologists have con- 

 sidered the bud as proceeding from that row of new wood, 



bV'ged t« be deferred to the supplement, which will be published the 1st 

 of next month. 



which 



