OF BUDS. 12^ 



er species the same bud bears both leaves and flowers. 

 Different causes, depending on the soil or situation, 

 seem in one case to generate leaf- buds, in another flower- 

 buds. Thus the Solandra grandifiora, Tr. of Linn. 

 Soc. V. 6. 99. t. 6, a Jamaica shrub, was for a number 

 of years cultivated in the English stoves, and propaga- 

 ted extensively by cuttings, each plant growing many 

 feet in length every season, from abundance of moisture 

 and nourishment, without showing any signs of fructifi- 

 cation. At length a pot of the Solandra was accidentally 

 left without water in the dry stove at Kew ; and in con- 

 sequence of this unintentional neglect, the kixu riant 

 growth of its branches was greatly checked, and a flower 

 came forth at the extremity of each. By a similar mode 

 of treatment the same effect has since frequentl) bten 

 produced. Several plants, especially with bulbous rootb. 

 which blossom abundantly in their native soils, liav'e 

 hitherto defied all the art of our gardeners to produce 

 this desirable effect ; yet future experience may possibly 

 place it within our reach by some very simple means. 

 In general, whatever checks the luxuriant production of 

 leaf-buds, favours the formation of flowers and seeds. 

 That variety, or perhaps species, of the Orange Lily, 

 Lilium bidbiferum^ which is most prolific in buds, sel~ 

 dom forms seeds, or even those organs of the flower 

 necessary to their perfection. So likewise the seeds of 

 Mints, a tribe of plants which increase excessively by 

 roots, have hardly been detected by any botanist ; and 

 it is asserted by Doody in Ray's Synopsis^ that when 

 the elegant little Qmithopiis perpusillus, Engl. Bot. t. 

 369, does not produce pods, it propagates itself by the 

 grains or tubercles of its root, though in general th^i 

 root is annual. 



