Motion of the Sap. 259 



cond, year, after they are felled and laid by without either root, 

 but, or top branches. 



In the sprint^ of 1826, I noted a knotty arm or branch of 

 Pseudacacia (Cobbett's Locust Tree), about 12 ft. long and 

 loin, in diameter, accidentally thrown across other pieces of 

 wood, under the shade of a yew tree, and in a damp situation, but 

 supported at least one foot from the earth. Most of the burry 

 knots vegetated more or less ; one shoot attained a length of 

 15 in.; in the following winter the upper end of this shoot 

 perished, but, in the spring of 1827, the remainder vegetated, 

 and produced the length of 9 in. more of young wood ; and. 

 vegetation also took place on every knot, to within about 2 ft. 

 of each extremity of the piece or arm. 



I was informed by an intelligent and sensible woodman (the 

 late Mr. Yates), that he saw a willow, or sallow, pole, pointed 

 at both ends, and put into the middle mortices of two three- 

 holed posts in the gap of a hedge, under the shade of some 

 sallow trees, in a moist situation by the side of a rivulet, which 

 vegetated two years. 



All men who fell and peel oak timber will verify the fact, 

 that the tree will peel earlier in the peeling season, and easier 

 at top than bottom. 



In the striking of hard-wooded heaths, and other choice 

 botanical cuttings, as well as those of the gooseberry and all 

 the tribe of /Salices, we are sure that nothing can be derived 

 from the earth at the outset of the operation, the power of ve- 

 getation must be contained in the cutting, and that sufficiently 

 to create its own roots and perfect the rooted shrub or tree. 

 It is found in practice that a vine cutting, planted ever so much, 

 say a foot, below the surface, will only make roots at that bud 

 nearest the surface; and a single bud, cut off a shoot with a 

 small portion of bark and wood, not larger than a horse bean, 

 will produce as good a plant as a cutting a yard long. 



I offer one more practical proof of the descent of the sap, 

 which demonstrates that every bud of a tree contains the same 

 latent vitality as that contained in the seed sperm. But the 

 means of preserving the vegetating powers of the cuttings and 

 buds is very limited. Oranges have been grafted in almost 

 every month of the year, and pinks and carnations, and other 

 herbs, may be propagated by cuttings in all the spring and 

 summer months. The proof I offer is in the grafting of vines 

 out of season. In the last two years I took cuttings for grafts 

 off the latest vines ; those I preserved hi a temperate cellar, 

 until the fruit of the earliest forced vines was all gathered, 

 the leaves fallen off, and the vine wood as dry and torpid as 

 an oak tree in January. I then inserted the scions by vertical 



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