170 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. V. 



in a stock, the buds of which are less mature, for 

 it does not commence vegetating until the supply 

 of sap is abundant, nor until the union between the 

 bark and alburnum have had time to be completed. 

 WTien Mr. Knight reversed this comparative state 

 of the stock and the bud, by inserting immatui'e 

 buds from a wall peach, upon peach trees in a forcing 

 house, which had nearly completed their gro^\th for 

 the season, the buds broke soon after their insertion, 

 and necessarily perished for w^ant of sufficient 

 nouiishment. 



Whatever promotes an over-luxuriant production 

 of leaf buds, proportionately diminishes the pro- 

 duction of flower buds, and the reason is obvious. 

 A luxuriant foliage is ever attendant upon an over- 

 abmidant supply of moist nomishment to the roots, 

 the consequent amount of sap generated is large, 

 requiring a proportionately increased surface of leaf 

 for its elaboration, and for the transpiration of the 

 supei^uous moisture, and as the bud becomes a 

 branch or a root accordingly as circumstances re- 

 quire, so does it produce, as may be necessary for 

 the plant s health, either leaves or flowers. This is 

 ascertained by the universal fact that a tree or 

 shi-ub, if headed down, throws out leaf-producing 

 buds only, but never flower buds; the former are 

 required for the plant's existence, but the latter 

 are only needful for the propagation of its species. 



