On ike Buds and Ramifications of Plants. 237 



influence of the rays of the sun and of the air, and that they 

 then no longer afiord a free passage to the ascending sap. It 

 is supposed that the fluids stop, and are accumulated at the 

 base of these leaves, and that they thereby give birlh to 

 cambium, which occasions the ring or swelling there ob- 

 served. It is pretended also that this cambium produces 

 new vessels, which, obeying the impulse they daily receive 

 from the ascending sap, become lengthened towards the 

 surface of the bark, and force themselves to pierce it j after 

 which they give birth to the bud. 



This explanation, though ingenious, appears to me to 

 be only a bold hypothesis, supported by facts which have 

 not been examined with sufficient care. Instead of bea;in- 

 ning by an explanation, it would have been better to discover 

 first all the facts and all the circumstances by which this 

 phjenomenon is accompanied. And still we shall succeed 

 as little in penetrating into this operation as we have done 

 in regard to all the rest, the secret of which nature seems 

 to have reserved to herself: the formation of the individuals 

 and of their organs will be always inexplicable to us. Na- 

 tvire, however, far from precluding us from researches, ex- 

 cites us rather to watch her; and it is then that, by attend- 

 ing with assiduity and without prejudice, we often discover 

 facts which form one step towards the truth. It may be 

 objected to this explanation, that there are, indeed, buds 

 which do not pierce the bark in the eves of the leaves, and 

 that the eve shows itself already at the time when the leaves 

 have lost none of their vigour. 



I shall now return to my own observations. l!i exa- 

 mining with attention the ligneous dicotyledon plants at 

 the different seasons, it will be observed tliat a bodi/ almost 

 always soft, herbaceous, and gratu, when it issues from the 

 wood, enters into the bud destined to develop flowers or a 

 branch, and that this body forms in reality the centre or 

 axis of the bud. The same observation will be made when 

 the wood of the branch which throws out the bud is already 

 formed of several annual zones. It will be perceived also 

 that this herbaceous body is rarely alone ; that it has, for the 

 most part, on each side, and at a very sniall distance from 

 it, another bo'ly, and sonietimas two, but of the same sub- 

 stance as itself: these lateral herbaceous bodies arc smaller 

 than it, and never penetrate into the substance of a bud 

 which produces branches or flowers: thev enter into those 

 only of the leaves; that is U» say, into those a petiole or 

 leaf of which is destined to develo]i itself, which we observe 

 at the bast of a tv%ig in several shrubs and bushes. Thera 



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