42 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Did the plant possess within itself no means of re- 

 pairing this injury, the whole previous labour of the 

 husbandman would in this case have been in vain. 

 But this destruction occurring in the spring of the year, 

 when the vegetative power of the plant is in the 

 greatest activity, an effect is produced somewhat ana- 

 logous to that of heading down a fruit-tree ; shoots 

 immediately spring up from the nodes (knots), the 

 plant becomes more firmly rooted, and produces, 

 probably, a dozen stems and ears where, but for the 

 temporary mischief, it might have sent forth only one. 

 Several extraordinary tacts have been recorded in 

 connexion with the inherent power of multiplication 

 possessed by these vegetables. Among others, Sir 

 Kenelm Digby asserted, in 1660, that 'there was 

 in the possession of the Fathers of the Christian doc- 

 trine at Paris, a plant of barley which they at that 

 time kept as a curiosity, and which consisted of two 

 hundred and forty -nine stalks springing from one 

 root or grain, and in which they counted above 

 eighteen thousand grains or seeds of barley.' In the 

 Philosophical Transactions* it is recorded, that Mr 

 C. Miller of Cambridge, the son of the eminent horti- 

 culturist, sowed, on the 2d of June, a few grains of 

 common red wheat, one of the plants from which had 

 tillered so much, that on the 8th of August he was 

 enabled to divide it into eighteen plants, all of which 

 were placed separately in the ground. In the course of 

 September and October so many of these plants had 

 again multiplied their stalks, that the number of plants 

 which were separately set out to stand the winter was 

 sixty-seven. With the first growth of the spring the 

 tillering again went forward, so that at the end of 

 March and beginning of April a farther division 

 was made, and the number of plants now amounted 

 to five hundred. Mr Miller expressed his opinion, 



* Vol. Iviii. 



