On the Reproduction of Buds. 79 



I expected to discover in seeds a similar power to rcgcnc- 

 jate their buds ; for the cotyledons of these, though dissi- 

 milar in organization, execute the office of the alburnum, 

 and contain a similar reservoir of nutriment, and at once 

 supply the place of the alburnum and ihe leaf. But no ex- 

 periments which I have yet been able to make, have been 

 decisive, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the number 

 of buds previously existing within the seed. Few if any 

 seeds, I have reason to believe, contain less than three buds, 

 one only of which, except in cases of accident, germinates ; 

 and some seeds appear to contain a much greater number. 

 The seed of the peach appears to be provided with ten or 

 twelve leaves, each of which probably covers the rudiment 

 of a bud, and the seeds, like the buds of the horse-chestnut, 

 contain all the leaves and apparently all the buds of the suc- 

 ceeding year : and I have never been able to satisfy myself 

 that all the buds were eradicated without having destroyed 

 the base of the plumule, in which the power of reproducing 

 buds probably resides, if such power exists. 



Nature appears to have denied to annual and biennial 

 plants (at least to those which have been the subjects of my 

 experiments) the power which it has given to perennial 

 plants to reproduce their buds ; but nevertheless some bien- 

 nials possess, under peculiar circumstances, a very singular 

 resource, when all their buds have been destroyed. A tur- 

 nip, bred between the English and Swedish variety, from 

 which I had cut off the greater part of its fruit-stalks, and 

 of which all the buds had been destroyed, remained some 

 weeks in an apparently dormant state; after which the first 

 seed in each pod germinated, and bursting the seed-vessel, 

 seemed to execute the office of a bud and leaves to the parent 

 plant, during the short remaining term of its existence, 

 when its preternatural foliage perished with it. Whether 

 this property be possessed by other biennial plants in com- 

 mon with the turnip or not, I am not at present in posses- 

 sion of facts to decide, not having made precisely the same 

 experiment on any other plant. 



I will take this opportunity to correct an inference th.nt I 



have 



