138 OF BUDS. 



leaves within them, are illustrated by nume- 

 rous examples. The Abbe de Ramatuelle 

 had taken up this subject with great zeal at 

 Paris, about twenty years ago, but the result 

 of his inquiries has not reached me. 



Dr. Darwin, Phytologia, sect. 9, has many 

 acute observations on the physiology of buds, 

 but he appears to draw the analogy too closely 

 between them and the embryo of a seed, or 

 the chick in the egg. By buds indeed, as we 

 well know, plants are propagated, and in that 

 sense each bud is a separate being, or a 

 young plant in itself; but such propagation 

 is only the extension of an individual, and 

 not a reproduction of the species as by seed. 

 Accordingly, all plants increased by buds, 

 cuttings, layers or roots, retain precisely the 

 peculiar qualities of the individual to which 

 they owe their origin. If those qualities dif- 

 fer from what are common to the species, 

 sufficiently to constitute what is called a va- 

 riety, that variety is perpetuated through all 

 the progeny thus obtained. This fact is ex- 

 emplified in a thousand instances, none more 

 notorious than the different kinds of Apples, 

 all which are varieties of the common Crab, 



