1857.]] Cincinnati Horticultural Society — Proceedings. 227 



appearances of a hranch, and as a branch, will bud and grow. I 

 think I can show, along Millcreek, where roots of trees have been 

 bared by the stream, they have sprouted and budded and grown into 

 shrubbery, as branches would. Loudon, he said, had bent a cherry- 

 tree and buried its top, thus bent, in the ground ; there it took root, 

 and he gradually loosened and removed the earth from the original 

 roots and finally the to]), thus rooted, became the sustaining part of 

 the tree, and thus reversed, it grew and flowered. Again he quoted 

 from Mr. Gary that ''the root never becomes a branch.'''' (Mr. Gary 

 asked. " Do you think that what you have adduced proves other- 

 wise ?") Yes, continued Mr. Ward, for what is that that was once 

 below the ground as aroot, and is now budding and bearing foliage, 

 but a branch? Moreover, he had himself seen an apple-tree, in the 

 orchard of Mr. Htiggins, near Granville, Ohio, which had been thus 

 reversed, and was then bearing apples! (A voice — "I saw the 

 same.") 



It is claimed by some, said Mr. Ward, that the plant in embryo 

 consists of the plumule and the radical — i. e., the ascending and the 

 descending axes. This, he thought, is not exactly the case, at least 

 as a thing known, and is not consistent with the phenomena of the 

 embryo. " Radical " may be a convenient name for all that is not 

 seed-leaves, etc.; but it is, after all, no more descending than ascend- 

 ing. He then proceeded to speak of the " stem," as an intermediate 

 part, which he illustrated by the growth of the bean. First, its seed- 

 lobes open, and an axis is produced, and presently from this come 

 fibrous roots. The first growth is intermediate, becomes green, is 

 the stem, and not a root. This idea of the stem being ascending and 

 descending, I can't exactly comprehend. Look at the iris : the stem 

 lays along horizontally below the surface of the soil, and sends its 

 roots below itself. The stem here is not an ascending axis; the stem 

 is horizontal, and shoots directly into leaf and flower. So with the 

 mint and verbena, where the stem is on the top of the ground hori- 

 zontally, and sends roots downward along its course. So, what shall 

 we say of the mistletoe, a perfect plant as any others, yet growing 

 under the trunk of a tree ; it sends its roots up instead of down, 

 while the leaves and flowers are sent downward toward the earth. 



So in regard to the potato, which is not a root. It may be so 

 called for popular description, but with scientific accuracy the potato 

 is a bud^ and not a root — a growing, subterranean bud. Nor is it a 

 stem, as the tuber of the dahlia is, but a congeries of buds contain- 



