478 CASUALTIES OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. XII. 



SUBSECTION VIII. 



Destruction of Ends. It has been already 

 shown that the buds which expand in the spring are 

 generated in the preceding summer, and augmented 

 and prepared for developement in the intervening 

 winter. But if the buds are destroyed in the course 

 of the winter, or in the early part of the spring, 

 many plants will again generate new buds that will 

 develope their parts as the others would have done, 

 except that they never contain blossom or fruit. By 

 what means are the buds regenerated ? 



Du Hamel thought they sprang from pre-or- 

 ganized germes which he conceived to be dispersed 

 throughout the whole of the plant. His proofs arc 

 founded on the following experiments : Having 

 taken some cuttings of the Willow,, he stuck them 

 in the earth, and made them at the same time pass 

 through a barrel filled with earth, so as to have a 

 portion exposed to the air between the earth and 

 the barrel, and another portion projecting above the 

 barrel. The part inserted in the ground produced 

 roots, and the part passing through the earth con- 

 tained in the barrel produced also roots, but the other 

 two portions produced branches. It was of little con- 

 sequence whether they were inserted in the earth 

 by the upper or under extremity; and they vege- 

 tated even when made to pass through the barrel 

 horizontally. But a cutting which was stuck into 



