Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 341 



Roeper's works*. Linnreus expressed the same thought in the 

 words '' gemmce totidem herhce." And I am thus led to make a 

 particular remark^ which is intended at the same time to modify 

 in some degree what I said before in relation to the annually 

 renewed generations of trees. It is indeed true that branches 

 of trees and perennial herbs^ especially in temperate climates, 

 first appear as buds; and in a more extended sense we call in 

 general every young branch a bud, even if its parts are not, as 

 they usually are^ compactly arranged and folded together ; still, 

 all buds are not the rudiments of branches. Lateral buds are 

 the only ones from which branches originate, and therefore they 

 alone are to be regarded as new lines of development, — as indi- 

 viduals. Terminal buds, on the contrary, are nothing but still- 

 undeveloped parts of the (relative) principal axis : they are mere 

 continuations and augmentations of the individual already ex- 

 isting, and are not to be regarded as commencements of a new 

 onef. Hence, only those trees which produce no terminal 

 buds, as the Linden, Willow and Elm, develope new individuals 

 and nothing else at each renewal of vegetation ; while, on the 

 contrary, those which do produce terminal buds also, as for 

 example the Oak and Poplar, bear a mixed annual generation, 

 which consists partly of new individuals, partly of old ones 

 reawakening and continuing their development with renewed 

 vigour. 



I have already remarked how unessential the presence of 

 branches is in inany plants. A comparison of stocks grown on 

 a rich soil with those of a poor one shows what license is given 

 to plants in regard to producing branches, and how different 

 the appearance of specimens of the same species thus becomes. 

 Plants grown on a poor soil are often called dwarfs ; but 



* " Omms gemma solitaria aut ejusdera continuatio immediata et per- 

 pendicularis (caiilis, ramus, ramulus, flos) individmim vegetabilc vocatur.'' 

 This is the most definite description I know of; for in this passage not 

 only the branches so called, but also every arbitrary shoot, even when it is 

 merely a flower, is acknowledged to be a particular individual. Besides 

 what I have stated in the text in regard to the appearance of terminal 

 buds, I have only to remark, against the word " gemma," that iu its 

 growth every shoot does not enjoy a jierceptible state of gemmation, i. e. 

 a state of rest in which its parts are folded together. The term ' bud' is 

 applicable to but one state of a shoot or of its parts, and therefore cannot 

 be a suitable expression for what is to be regarded as the vegetable in- 

 dividual. 



t Kiitzing (Phil. Bot. ii. p. 146) aptly expresses these relations by 

 calling the terminal bud the continuation of the " series of formations;" 

 lateral buds, beginnings of a new " series of generations." In contradic- 

 tion with these terms,"however, he calls the bud an "organ" as long as it 

 is connected with the natural individual, — a term inap])licable to the bud as 

 it is to the develojjed branch, of which it is the adolescent state. 



