188 PROCESS OF NUTRITION. CHAP. III. 



of any other channel. But although such experi- 

 ments as the foregoing do generally prove fatal to 

 the life of the plant on account of the interruption 

 of the channel of the descent of the proper juice, 

 and consequent privation of nutriment ; yet there 

 are some plants to which the experiment even com- 

 municates a temporary and preternatural fertility. 

 If a ring of bark is detached in the spring from the 

 trunk of an Olive-tree, it will produce that year a 

 double quantity both of blossoms and of fruit, 

 though it will soon afterwards die ; * but the pheno- 

 menon is easily accounted for. The preternatural 

 fertility of the plant is owing to the unusual accu- 

 mulation of proper juice in the leaves and branches, 

 in consequence of the interruption of the descent 

 of the proper juice; and the subsequent death of 

 the plant is owing to the privation of nutriment 

 sustained by the root, in consequence of the same 

 cause. 



According But Hales did not admit the bark to be the chan- 

 nel of the descent of the proper juice, alleging in sup- 

 port of his objections the evidence of the following 

 experiment: Having stripped a trunk of its bark, 

 so as to leave a number of insulated rings still re- 

 maining, of which some were furnished with buds, 

 and some not, the trunk still lived, and the buds 

 protruded both leaves and branches ; the lower lips 

 of such rings as were furnished with buds producing 

 tumors, and the lips of such as were without buds 

 * La Nature Devoilce. 



