LECT. VIII.] ORIGIN OF BRANCHES. 395 



did they arise from the pre-organized germs of 

 Du Hamel. If this reasoning be correct, the first 

 division of our question is already answered ; and 

 we may conclude that all stem buds originate 

 when the young stem is evolved from the seed, and 

 all branch buds at the time that the young branch 

 is formed in the axilla of the leaf. They are not, 

 however, all protruded during the succulent state 

 of the stem and branch, but many remain latent, 

 performing so much of their functions only as is 

 requisite to organize to their proper structure a 

 certain portion of each successive annual layer of 

 wood, and carry them forward in the einbryon 

 state; until circumstances occur favourable to the 

 completion of their organization and protrusion on 

 the surface of the stem ; or until some accident 

 destroys them*. 



If buds be not pre-organized germs, nor 

 formed from the descending proper juice; how 

 then do they originate ? I reply, in vital points 

 (puncta vitalia) generated, in the first period of 

 the growth of the stem and the branch, in the 

 axillae of the leaves : or that they are, to use the 

 language of Darwin, distinct individuals, the 

 lateral or viviparous progeny of the. parent upon 



* In Plate 7, fig. 8, a. represents a bud which has been 

 destroyed in the fourth year of the growth of the stem ; and 

 over which the subsequent layers of wood have formed. 



