184 PRINCIPLES OF GAEDENING. [CH. V. 



the character of evergreen trees, and emitted a mass 

 of roots. 



That leaves may be made almost universally to 

 emit roots, there appears little reason to doubt ; for 

 the same great physiologist had long before proved, 

 that the roots of trees are generated from vessels 

 passing from the leaves through the bark ; and that 

 they never, in any instance, spring from the albur- 

 num. But the question arises, will they produce 

 buds '? and, at present, the answer derived from prac- 

 tice is in the negative. Orange leaves, Rose leaves, 

 leaves of Statice arborea, have been made to root 

 abundantly ; but, like blind cabbage-plants, they ob- 

 stinately refused to produce buds. Dr. Lindley thinks 

 that a more abmidant supply of richer food, and ex- 

 posure to a greater mtensity of light, would have re- 

 moved this deficiency^; and I see every reason for 

 concurring with so excellent an authority ; for buds 

 seem to spring from the central vessels of plants, 

 and these vessels are never absent from a leaf. If 

 an abundant supply of food were given to a well- 

 rooted leaf, and it were cut do^\-n close to the callus 

 from whence the roots are emitted, I think buds would 

 be produced, for the very roots themselves have the 

 same power. 



* Gardeners' Chronicle, January, 1845. 



