22 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



altered. The crab, on which the finest apple has been budded, 

 still remains a crab : thus proving, that it serves merely as a 

 source from which the young bud derives its nourishing matter ; 

 although it is highly probable, from the difference of the results, 

 that, that matter undergoes some peculiar elaboration, after 

 leaving the vessels of the original stock. On this principle, five 

 or six different species of fruit have been known to be budded 

 on the same tree, and which, in full fruit, exhibited a singular and 

 beautiful spectacle. It is impossible to say how a bud torn from 

 one tree, and put in the place of another bud in another tree, 

 should become a perfect branch, producing flowers and fruit in 

 the highest perfection ; but attempts have been made to trace 

 the various steps of nature in effecting her operations. Accord- 

 ingly it is said, that after the fresh bud has been inserted into the 

 wound, formed by the extraction of another bud, that the 

 cambium unites the two parts, forms a connecting medium for 

 the vessels of the bud and the tree, and thus enables the 

 vegetative process to go on whenever nature requires it. Mr. 

 Knight has noticed some facts worthy of record ; and he states 

 that "a line of confused organization marks the place where the 

 inserted bud first comes into contact with the wood of the stock, 

 between which line and the bark of the inserted bud, new wood, 

 regularly organized, is generated. This wood possesses all the 

 characteristics of that from which the bud is taken, without any 

 apparent mixture with the character of the stock in which it is 

 inserted. The substance which is called the medullary process, 

 is clearly seen to spring from the bark, and to terminate at the 

 line of its first union with the stock." 



The usual position of buds is in the axil of the leaves, except 

 in the genera Mimosa, Gleditschia and a few others. The buds 

 are opposite to each other when the branches or leaves are 

 opposite, alternate when the latter are alternate, and terminal 

 when the leaves are terminal. In those plants that have both 

 opposite and alternate leaves or branches, the buds are commonly 

 solitary. 



Various forms are assumed by different buds, according to 

 those of the contained leaves; an admirable adaptation of 



