AND SUBORDINATION. 89 



originated from buds which have been formed at different 

 periods of the life of the tree. Hence, as growth progresses, 

 and the successive conical layers accumulate year after year 

 around the stem and its branches, the original points of 

 development from whence the first vitally active buds pro- 

 ceeded, become deeply seated in the interior of the stem ; 

 for the wood of the principal branches of the tree which 

 usually developes from the earliest vitally active buds, can 

 be traced through the successive annual layers down to 

 these original points. This is the cause of those knots 

 which we find in firs and other wood. They are in fact 

 sections across a portion of the branches, which proceed 

 from the interior of the stem, laterally and outwardly. 

 The diagram on page 59, if carefully studied awhile, will 

 also make this fact plain. 



But the abundant supply of food existing in the cells of 

 the cambium region of the healthy trunks of trees which 

 have been pollarded, will also stimulate to " unusual 

 activity the cambium cells ;" and if there is no wake visible 

 on dissection, it may be decided that the branches have 

 been developed from cells which have originated there, as 

 "vents for the extraordinary vital energy of the plant."* 



In society, as in a tree, there is a vast amount of dormant 

 ability, which would manifest itself if circumstances were 

 favorable. So, when a nation is decimated by disease, or 

 depopulated by war, its arts and sciences revive, its poets 

 and philosophers, its statesmen and heroes, are all repro- 

 duced. Dormant talent is developed to replace that which 

 has been removed. Men who would have passed through 

 life without notice, fulfilling its ordinary routine of duties 

 in their several callings and professions, become suddenly 

 stimulated to exert themselves. The conditions have be- 

 come more favorable for their development ; their intel- 

 lectual and moral energies are called forth by the new 

 circumstances in which they find themselves placed, and 

 they prove themselves equal to the performance of the 

 several tasks which have been allotted to them. Their 

 talents are as conspicuous and as highly honored by the 



* Henfey's Elementary Course of Botany, page 578. 



