176 On the Physiology of Vegetables. 



throw off their scales as they passed up under the screw (fig. 4.) 

 which divides the new from the old wood: any one may see the 

 scales fall off, and again renewed as soon as the Lud has passed 

 up into its place in the new shoot. Hence ])robably the reason 

 why the new wood of every tree is always grooved, whether the 

 old wood is so or not. The pedinicle, after throwing up the bndj 

 generally gets incorporated with the stem: but if the bud is torn 

 down some time after, it again stops at tlie same place from 

 which it proceeded, by tearing down to that place, or at least 

 in an exact line to that part of the screw under which it dipped : 

 the flower has then only to protrude a common flower-stalk, as 

 soon as it has quitted the bud, and to open ; and this ends its 

 whole history, at least that which belongs to the fiower-bud of 

 the tree and shrub. 



1 now turn to the bud of the annual and herbaceous plants, 

 or those which rise each year from the earth. The difference 

 is essential; since, instead of having a settled bud apparently 

 visible for months, and as a promise of future flowers, the 

 bud does not appear in general till just as it is going to break 

 into flower, and till it has travelled to the top of the ])lant. Can . 

 it be supposed then that Nature, which in t!ie tree makes the 

 perfecting the flower a long process, sliould in the herbaceous 

 plant complete it directly, without preface and with.out prepara- 

 tion, though it has literally the same process to fulJilP Does 

 this appear natural, or even probable? thus to form the whole, 

 and bring it forth without any time to mature its buds and juices? 

 Impossible! Is it not strange that the curiosity of botanists 

 should not have tempted them to tear open a plant from one end 

 to the other, to seek the time when these flowers are formed,- 

 when they have already discovered the flower in the lull, and | 

 that in the water-lily it leaves the root when quite large, and is^ 

 to be seen with the naked eye? And in the saxifran^a crassJjolia 

 •it is quite as visible as in the crocus ; and in the violet the 

 flower-bud comes out of the root so much finished, that no person 

 can doubt w^hat it is, if they will hut look. Its manner of 

 •mounting in yearly plants, yields specimens of uncommon beauty. 

 Unlike the tree, the whole texture of the plant is infinitely looser, 

 vet still consisting of innumerable cylinders one within the other; 

 instead of being stretched tight, as at fig. 1 1, forming one only: 

 the thin matter doubles in, and produces innumerable apertures 

 at fig. 19, these folds afford a place of refuge for many flowers, 

 indeed for whole bouquets : and if an herbaceous plant is cut 

 horizontally with a very sharp razor, and then laid on the ta- 

 ble for a few hours, the flowers will stand up above the cylinders, 

 and thus exactly distinguish the difference between the cases 

 and the buds, which from the extreme thinness and delicacy of 



"the 



