Gaudichaud's " Vegetable Physiology" 375 



new work, M. Gaudichaud has raised himself as high as our most 

 skilful phytologists. It is worthy of remark that, during the fatigues 

 of two long voyages, in spite of the wretched state of his health, 

 this indefatigable naturalist never ceased to apply himself to re- 

 searches of extreme delicacy, and that he has carried them as far 

 as he would have done in the quiet of his closet. Here we can 

 only name the least part of his most interesting observations. 



He has examined, drawn and described a multitude of seeds and 

 embryos belonging to families still little known, such as the Nym- 

 pheacecp, the Piperacea, the Gnetacece, the CycadecB. This last 

 family supplied him, during his first voyage sixteen or seventeen 

 years ago, with a succession of ovological facts of which some are 

 still new, notwithstanding the recent investigations of MM. Corda 

 and Robert Brown. He caused to germinate in their native climate, 

 seeds of Piper, Peperomia, Loranthus, Avicennia, Bruguiera, Rhi- 

 zophora, &c.; and he now gives us positive notions respecting the 

 first developments of these plants, which will take the place of vague 

 or erroneous opinions in science. At the same lime that he was 

 bringing together numerous herbarium specimens, he studied the 

 interior of stems, and found in the structure and arrangement of 

 the ligneous body, strange anomalies which would little have been 

 suspected there. It was particularly these observations which sug- 

 gested to him the project of bringing together all the facts of de- 

 velopment and growth under general laws, a project the execution 

 of which he has constantly followed up since his return to France. 



In order that every one may be able to verify the facts, he has 

 chosen many examples amongst our commonest plants, and these 

 have often furnished him with new views: we shall point out among 

 others the radish, the turnip, the carrot, the beet, the horse 

 chestnut. From the better known organization of these different 

 vegetable productions he has been able to derive arguments in 

 favour of his opinions. Some have also been furnished him by the 

 phaenomena which the processes of barking, cuttings, grafts, lop- 

 ping, and other operations of culture present. There is not, so to 

 speak, a single important fact of vegetation which he has not tried 

 to bring under the rule of his doctrine; and his efforts, even when 

 in certain cases some persons may have thought his conclusions too 

 hasty, have never been unproductive. 



Explanations concerning each fact would carry us far. Let us 

 dwell only upon three points, which amongst so many other re- 

 markable ones, merit more particularly to engage the attention of 

 the Academy. /. . , 



At the base of a cauline bud oi: Draccena stript of its herbaceous 

 envelope by maceration, there appears, if we may so express it, a 

 kind of paw, a continuation of the superior ligneous fibres, which is 

 fastened on the ligneous body of the stem, and elongates itself into 

 threadlike fingers, numerous and divergent. These fingers are 

 evidently minute vascular fasciculi. Would they have descended 

 to the roots if the vegetation had not been stopt? This is very pro- 

 bable. 



