SECT. V. GEMS. 279 



result.* The scales, which were from twenty-five 

 to thirty in number, were found to contain from 

 eight to ten flowers attached to a common foot-stalk 

 of half a line in length. The flowers in their ag- 

 gregate aspect resembled Rose-buds set with hairs. 

 The petals were scarcely perceptible ; but the fila- 

 ments were distinctly visible, surmounted with 

 white anthers. The pistils were not yet visible, 

 but they became visible in the following month, 

 when the anthers had begun also to assume a tinge 

 of red. The ovary was not distinguishable in the 

 earlier dissection ; but it was distinguishable before 

 the evolution of the bud. 



Similar appearances may be seen by opening up 

 the flower-buds of almost any plant, long before the 

 time of their natural evolution. The Mezereon 

 produces its flowers in the month of January or 

 February. But if a bud is taken and dissected in 

 the month of August preceding, the petals, the 

 stamens, and the envelopes of the young fruit, may 

 be all distinctly perceived. The Peach-tree pro- 

 duces its flowers in April. But if a bud is dissected 

 in the month of February preceding, the whole of 

 the parts of fructification may be perceived in mi- 

 niature, wrapped up in the calyx by the overlapping 

 of its divisions. The corolla is extremely small, but 

 the stamens and pistil are very perceptible ; and the 

 pollen may even be discerned in the anthers. 



If a bud producing both leaf and flower is taken Or both. 

 * Phys. des Arbres, liv. iii. chap. i. 



