36 GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



make himself familiar with all their forms, modifications, 

 modes of development, and the purposes they are adapted 

 to fulfil in the formation of the tree and its products. The 

 immediate causes of the production of buds on the grow- 

 ing shoots of trees, and the sources from which they spring 

 or in which they originate, are alike thus far mysterious, 

 notwithstanding they have been the subject of a vast deal 

 of research and speculation among the botanists and vege- 

 table physiologists. We are able, however, to trace clear- 

 ly and satisfactorily the objects they are intended to fulfil 

 in the development of the tree, their connection with, and 

 dependency upon other parts, and the circumstances un- 

 der which they can be made to accomplish specific pur- 

 poses. 



Every bud contains the rudiments of, and is capable 

 under favorable circumstances of producing, a new indi- 

 vidual similar to that on which it is borne. 



This fact is clearly demonstrated in the propagation of 

 trees by budding, where a single eye is removed from one 

 shoot and placed in the wood of another, to which it 

 unites and forms a new individual similar to its parent. 

 So in propagation by eyes, as in the grape-vine, where a 

 single bud with a small portion of wood attached, becomes 

 a perfect plant. 



Every perfect bud we find on a young yearling tree or 

 shoot is capable of being developed into a branch. Ka- 

 turally, they all do not develope ; but we know that by 

 the application of art they can be readily forced to do so. 



For instance, the buds of a yearling tree, if left to take 

 their natural course, will only in part produce branches, 

 and these will generally be nearer to the extremities, 

 where they are the most excitable ; but we can cause the 

 lower ones to develope branches, by cutting off those 

 above them to the extent that the particular character of 

 the species or variety, or of the buds themselves in respect 

 to vigor and vitality, may require. Hence it is that the 



