1857.] upon Views Entertained. 151 



to the strawberry and the grasses, and confuse yourself, and per- 

 haps confound your opponent, if he will admit that nature has but 

 a single type, and in relation to that type all laws are uniform — 

 which position is simply absurd; but if you will search among di- 

 cotyledonous trees, you may take one hundred thousand, and while 

 you will not find a seedling without a descending axis, unless it has 

 been destroyed in germination, you may take a like number of cut- 

 tings, layers, or sprouts, and you will not find one that has such de- 

 scending axis. You will find in these latter, great diversity ; but 

 amidst it all, they are destitute of this important natural appendage. 

 What is the design of nature, in the seed ? manifestly, reproduction. 

 What of the bud? a continuance and extension of growth of the 

 individual plant, in conforming with a co-ordinate law of the root 

 and rootlet, answering to it and supporting it. And while we are 

 aware of the fact that the bud may be made to assume an in- 

 dependent position, and grow apart from the parent stem, we will not 

 admit that this bud can be made, or ever was made, to produce a true 

 phyton. We assert then, that every tree formed from a branch or 

 layer, as every tree formed from a forced bud along a root or rootlet, 

 is abnormal. Every bud and branch that by any means may be 

 made to develop roots, does it on the principle of accommodation. 

 It is not a natural operation, it is forced. Every root proceeding 

 from such bud or branch is adventitious. You may force roots from 

 the cambium layer of such plants, from any portion of theinternode. 

 Who will say such roots are in embryo in this cambium layer, in per- 

 fection, as the root situated between the cotyledonous buds, which 

 may be distinctly seen by the microscope? Every root proceeding 

 from such branch is adventitious and abnormal. You say nature 

 has provided here a treasury for reproduction, that no plant or tree 

 shall be lost. This is all beautiful, but it is all poetry. Nature's 

 great treasure-house is in her seeds ; here she provides an ample 

 store against all contingencies. The great source of improvement is 

 here also. She gives you only hints in the light of exceptions in 

 propagating from her buds. This practice is essentially man's de- 

 vice. True she has by this operation in effect said, if the seed be 

 lost, or you have an excellent variety of a species you may desire to 

 retain intact, you may thus preserve it, yet you may the better do 

 this by ingrafting or budding upon healthy seedlings, and thus ar- 

 rest the more rapid degeneracy incurred by propagating from layers. 

 You may thus multiply your Bellefleur, your Golden llusset ; but if 



