CONSERVATIVE: ORGANS. [LECT. ix. 



a leaf or branch gem ; and b. b. are gems which 

 produce a small tuft of leaves terminated by a 

 bunch of blossom. The information afforded 

 by the external characters of gems is import- 

 ant to the practical gardener, in pruning fruit- 

 trees in winter and in early spring ; for, without it 

 the whole of the floriferous gems might be de- 

 stroyed, and the expectations of the cultivator al- 

 together disappointed. But change of soil or of 

 climate, the art of the horticulturist, and many 

 accidents, may change one kind of gems into the 

 other kinds. Thus a Solandra, Solandra grandi- 

 flora, in the Kew garden, which had never flow- 

 ered, being by an accidental neglect left without 

 water, the too luxuriant growth of the plant was 

 checked, and flower-buds were formed in the en- 

 suing summer *. From the same cause, a tree 

 newly transplanted, is often covered with blossoms, 

 although it be nearly destitute of foliage. 



The leaves, as has already been mentioned, 

 are variously folded up, so as to occupy the 

 smallest possible space within the hybernaculum. 

 This regulates the expansion of the leaves when 



/ Deritraria, Ornithogalo, Lfiio, Saxifraga. Foliiferce, nonjlo- 

 " rifercK : Alnus. Foliiferce, et Jloriferce distinct^ : Populus, 

 " Salicis species, Fraxinus. Foliiferce et Jloriferce jeminece : 

 " Corylus, Catfpinus. Foliiferce et jloriferce mascultB : Pinus, 

 " Abies. Foliiferce etjlorifera hermaphrodite : Daphne, Ulmus, 

 " Cornus, Amygdalus. Foliifero-Jlorifera:, ut pleraeque ar- 

 4< bores." Phil. Boi. 85. * Smith's Introduction^ p. 190. 



