121 



it is not on that account the less wood, than when, be- 

 ing transformed into a pillar, it is made to support the 

 enormous weight of an edifice. 



In the union of the groff with its subject, we likewise 

 perceive a glutinous substance to. spring from each of 

 them, which spreads, ramifies, and is formed into a ball 

 in both, becoming by degrees herbaceous, cortical, lig- 

 neous, and composes above the insertion a roll which 

 entirely covers it So that the whole body of the plant 

 is furnished with small fibres on the inside, which only 

 wait for favourable circumstances to display themselves. 

 These circumstances are a wound, ai incision, or a simple 

 ligature. These fibres are the elements of cortical or 

 ligneous beds, which by spreading themselves on all 

 sides, furnish the necessary repairs. The wound, inci- 

 sion, and ligature, occasioning the nutricious juices to 

 flow towards these invisible fibres, expand them, and 

 render them perceptible to us. 



What these fibres perform in the regeneration of the 

 bark or wood, the germs effect in the reproduction of a 

 branch or young shoot. The fibres of the bark or wood 

 do not unite themselves into bunches, in order to com- 

 pose a lud or branch in miniature. This branch is al- 

 ready completely formed in its germ : it there possesses 

 the elements of all the beds, whether cortical or ligne- 

 ous, which it will hereafter exhibit under different pro- 

 portions. 



