BUD 



BUD 



the seed. It afterwards sends out small deli- 

 cate vessel* that inosculate with those of the 

 trunk, and absorb from them the sap-juice 

 which is conveyed to every part for its nutrition. 

 And after having attained a determinate size 

 in this situation, it penetrates and forces itself 

 through the coverings into the air, which at 

 first are pushed before it so as to swell out, and 

 soon afterwards torn asunder; when it unfolds 

 itself, exhibiting iu a short time the perfect 

 plant in miniature, but deriving its nourishment 

 from the tree, till forced or cutoff, and planted in 

 the soil. Buds, by being inserted into or ingrafted 

 on the stems or branches of other trees, or by 

 being planted in the earth, become plants similar 

 to those from which they were taken. 



Each bud of most of the deciduous trees 

 iu this climate, may, it is supposed by the 

 author of the Philosophy of Gardening, be 

 considered as an individual biennial plant, with 

 as much distinctness as a seed; as " the 

 bud like the seed is formed in one summer, 

 grows to maturity in the next, and then 

 dies." Yet that in some trees in this climate, 

 such " as the mock orange, philadelphus, 

 acacia, viburnum; and in the evergreen 

 shrubs, such as holly, laurel, vinca, heath 

 and rue," as well as " in all those herbs com- 

 monly called annuals; and in most of the 

 trees of warmer climates, the buds appear to be 

 formed in the vernal months, and to arrive at 

 their maturity during the same year, and may 

 therefore be properly called annual plants." It 

 is likewise further contended, that " the bud of 

 those herbs usually termed annuals, rises in the 

 bosom of a leaf; and, as it adheres to its parent, 

 requires no female apparatus to nourish it, but 

 gradually strikes down roots from its caudex 

 into the ground, which caudex forms a part of 

 the bark of the increasing plant." This is sup- 

 posed to be exemplified in those herbaceous ve- 

 getables that have just risen from seeds; the 

 buds of which being in reality individual an- 

 nual plants, that " grow to maturity adhering 

 to the parent," and do not consequently, from 

 there bcine no reservoir of nutriment laid up for 

 them, resemble a seed or egg: the same thing is 

 also supposed to happen to the evergreen shrubs 

 and trees of this climate, such as heath, rue, box, 

 pine, and laurel, as in these vegetables, from 

 the leaf not being destroyed in the autumn, it 

 continues to oxvgenate the juice, and supply 

 nourishment to the bud in its bosom in tbft fine 

 days in the winter and spring seasons, surviving 

 till nearly the middle of summer, or when the 

 new bud has expanded a leaf of its own. 

 Hence it is ingeniously conjectured that such 

 evergreens make no reserve of nutriment, 



in the summer, in their roots or alburnum, 

 for the support of their ensuing vernal buds, 

 and consequently have perhaps no bleeding 

 season, as in trees of the deciduous kind. 



The embryon in a bud of a plant of the de- 

 ciduous kind, however, leaves its hybernaculum 

 in the spring season, in the same manner as the 

 embryon in a seed, or the chick in the egg; 

 and, as in these, the young plants in different ve- 

 getables have previously attained different statps 

 of maturity, as has been observed by M. Ferber 

 in many instances. 



But in the buds in many other trees, and in all 

 the backward buds formed late in summer on 

 the lower parts of branches much excluded from 

 light and air, the embryon is not forward 

 enough to be readily perceived ; and in those 

 deciduous trees or shrubs in this climate, that 

 have no discernible buds in winter, such as the 

 mock orange, viburnum, and various others, it 

 is suspected that there is an embryon secreted 

 from the juice of the plant at the foot-stalk of each 

 leaf, but which is not so forward as to protrude 

 through the bark and exhibit a prominent bud. 

 The same is conceived to be the case with such 

 trees in warm climates as lose their leaves in 

 winter, in which they are believed not to pro- 

 duce buds in autumn, as it cannot be supposed 

 how fresh leaf-buds can be produced in the 

 vernal months, when the leaves or lungs of 

 the full grown living part of the tree are de- 

 stroyed, and the last year's buds along with them. 

 But if the caudex of the new bud be generated 

 without the plumula, or visible bud, it is cer- 

 tainly capable of affording a plumula for itself 

 in the spring, as is exemplified in the production 

 of new buds, or a branch being cut off, on 

 the sides of the remaining trunk, as is often 

 the case in trees of the willow kind. 



In regard to the growth of the new bud, it is 

 observed " that the pith is of great consequence 

 to it, as is shown by gradually slicing a shoot of 

 horse-ehesnut in autumn or the early spring. 

 The rudiments of the seven separate ribs of the 

 late parent leaf, and the central pith of the bud 

 in its bosom, are seen to arise or terminate near 

 the pith of the parent shoot, where the embryon 

 plumula is probably secreted by a gland at the 

 bottom of the parent leaf-stalk, finds there its 

 first reception and nourishment, and is gradually 

 protruded and elongated by the pith which exists 

 in its centre, as the bud proceeds, and thus 

 constitutes the ascending caudex of the new 

 bud; which is resembled by the wires of straw- 

 berries, and other creeping vegetables; whereas 

 the descending caudexes of the new buds, 

 which form the filaments of the bark of trees, 

 are secreted from the various parts of the old 



