394 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. VIII. 



may be allowed the expression (see Plate 7, fig. 

 7, a. b. c.); receive a new impulse, sufficient to 

 call into action their dormant powers, and enable 

 them to protrude and evolve their leaves, in the 

 same season ; which, had the other buds been 

 left, might not have happened for many years 

 to come. 



This fact is practically known to nurserymen 

 and gardeners, who, without any theory, but 

 guided by their experience, act upon it in order 

 to obtain a clean Cherry tree stem. No tree 

 is so apt to throw out adventitious buds as the 

 Cherry tree; but as this would deform and injure 

 the plant, the nurserymen cut them off close to 

 the bark. A second crop of shoots, very soon af- 

 terwards, makes its appearance, which is also 

 taken away by the knife, after which no other 

 appears; and, if the stem be now cut through 

 under the existing branches, it ceases to grow. 

 I am of opinion that the same circumstance would 

 take place in forest trees, were all the lateral 

 buds of the leading shoot annually rubbed off, 

 so as to bring forward every latent germ ; and, 

 by destroying the successive crops of buds as 

 they are evolved, a clean stem perfectly free from 

 knots might always be insured. That the buds, 

 when they first protrude, receive their nourish- 

 ment from the descending proper juice, is ex- 

 tremely probable ; but this would also be the case 



