AND SUBORDINATION. 87 



of passive vitality, entombed in the stem of the tree, like 

 a seed which is buried in the ground. The trunks and 

 branches of trees always contain an immense number of 

 these buried buds. The Beech branch figured on page 31 

 of this work, may be again referred to ; for it furnishes an 

 excellent illustration of this truth. "We have proved it to 

 have been constructed by the labors of one hundred and 

 fifty-five leaves, each of which formed, more or less per- 

 fectly, a bud in its axilla, before it fell from the stem ; yet 

 only twenty-seven of these leaves developed vitally active 

 buds therefore, the total number of abortive or rudimen- 

 tary buds in the branch must be 155 27=128. 



The reader will remember that this branch is only six 

 years old, and is a mere twig, comparatively speaking. The 

 length of the primary axis is but twenty-seven inches and 

 three lines, and of its greatest secondary axis fifteen inches. 

 How countless, therefore, must be the number of rudimen- 

 tary buds in powerful branches, which have been growing 

 for centuries! Each generation of leaves, whose labors 

 brought those branches to their present strength and size, 

 doubtless left behind them buds which now lie concealed 

 in them. The vitality of those buds is not destroyed. Their 

 parent leaves, it may be, have died, and dropped from the 

 tree many years ago ; but they still retain, unimpaired, the 

 life which they then received. It is only necessary for 

 them to be placed in circumstances favorable to their 

 growth, to commence the most energetic life-movements. 

 Let some of the leading branches be broken off by the 

 high winds of Winter, and when Spring comes, they will 

 attract the sap which went to those branches to themselves. 

 This will arouse their dormant energies ; and so powerful 

 will be the impulse received, that they will force their way 

 through the wood and bark to the surface, and break forth in- 

 to branches, although that wood and bark may be the growth 

 of years. All must be familiar with the sight of willows and 

 other trees, whose main branches have been thus broken off, 

 and whose trunks are nevertheless covered with young bran- 

 ches and shoots, the growth of buds whichhave been buried 

 in their wood, and for years dormant beneath their surface. 



