185*7.] upon Views Entertained. 153 



more; you have no descending axis; in being separated from the 

 the tree it left its descending axis in the parent tree. When you 

 remove this bud or branch you put nature upon a new work — upon 

 the work of developing roots. She pauses some time before she 

 consents, and frequently she refuses. She uniformly waits until she 

 calouses the stem, often demanding extra assistance by heat and 

 other means, before she can so far gain strength to force out from 

 her cambium layer, lateral roots, which placed under favorable cir- 

 cumstances will continue to grow, and at length evolve branches 

 from branches, as the parent root did, only in a more enfeebled and 

 crippled condition. 



In most plants nature utterly refuses compliance with your de- 

 mauds. This is the case with almost all resinous sapped trees. 

 Some trees — and there are exceptions to the general rule — will when 

 properly treated, send out vigorous laterals, adventitious abnormal 

 or forced roots, never, properly speaking, a full perfectly formed de- 

 scending axis, such as is attached to a seedling plant. You may 

 likewise cause the root to develop plumules, as you often see in the 

 numerous sprouts springing from the oft-lacerated, broken or bruised 

 roots, of thriftily growing trees ; having when thus broken and 

 bruised, an over supply of the descending current, thereby forcing 

 out buds and branches which would not have been developed. These 

 buds feeding upon the cambium layer, throw up their plumules, 

 forming upon the root an abnormal tree, a tree not to be trusted, a 

 tree, indeed, inferior to that from a bud or branch of the ascending 

 axis. This, then, is our position, that neither class of trees, viz. : 

 those formed hy layers, or those formed vpon roots, have, or can he 

 made to have, a regular descendiny axis or tap root, which is regarded 

 by many as a mere useless appendage, fit only to be truncated and 

 thrown away, and which is recommended by some cultivators high 

 in authority ; and the question was gravely propounded to us in 

 the Horticultural Society, whether a tree with its tap root cut off, 

 was not placed on like condition thereby with a layer. We might 

 answer this question by asking another — whether it will result in 

 the same thing to cut off a bit of a dog's tail, or inflict the blow just 

 behind his ears ? Your tree with its tap root cut off, is simply cur- 

 tailed. I know the analogy is not complete, but it shows most clear- 

 ly that there would be a great difference between truncating a portion 

 of the root, and cutting above the point of emanation of the ascend- 

 ing axis. As long as there is any portion of the descending axis 



