258 PROCESS OF DEVELOPEMENT. CHAP. IV. 



the pith or cellular tissue which he regarded as viscera 

 destined for the elaboration of the sap and protru- 

 sion of future buds ;* but this opinion has not been 

 supported by subsequent observation. Du Hamel 

 thinks the exterior scales of the bud originate in the 

 interior part of the bark, of which they seem to be 

 only a prolongation, and that the young branch or 

 flower contained within the scales seems to be a 

 prolongation of the wood and pith of the former 

 year. And yet this opinion seems to be altogether 

 inconsistent with an opinion which he also ad- 

 vances, and by which he supposes the buds of the 

 plant to originate in what he denominates pre- 

 organized germes, existing in the proper juice, and 

 deposited by it in its descent so as to pervade the 

 whole of the plant. If these germes are understood 

 to be the result of the agency of the vital principle, 

 their existence is not impossible ; though it must, at 

 the same time, be acknowledged that it is by no 

 means proved. Perhaps the opinion arose from the 

 facility with which buds are protruded in given cir- 

 cumstances, in almost any part of the, plant. If a 

 branch is lopped, or if the stem is truncated, new 

 buds containing the rudiments of new shoots will 

 soon after make their appearance near the sec-> 

 tion ; so that they seem to be dispersed without 

 number throughout the whole extent of the plant. 



repcrcussa juxta nodos, hoc vocatur in vite gemma. Nat, Mist, 

 liv. xvii. chap. 21. 

 * Anat. Plant. 13. 



