SECT. XXXIX. 2. 2. GENERATION. 383 



probably nourished by abforbing the fluid, with which it is fur- 

 rounded, like the fetus of animals, as ihewn in my work on 

 vegetation, termed Phytologia. Sect. VII. i. 2. Secondly, I 

 conceive that then the bark-veflels belonging to the dead leaf, and 

 in which I fuppofe a kind of manna to have been depofited, be- 

 come now the placental veflels, if they may be fo called, of the 

 oew bud. From the vernal fap thus produced of one fugar-ma- 

 ple-tree in New-York and in Pennfylvania, five or fix pounds of 

 good fugar may be made annually without deftroying the tree. 

 Account of maple-fugar by B. Rum. London, Phiiiips. (See 

 Botanic Garden, Part I. additional note on vegetable placenta- 

 tion.) 



Thefe veflels, when the warmth of the vernal fun hatches the 

 young bud, ferve it with a faccharine nutriment, till it acquires 

 leaves of its own, and (hoots a new fyftem of abforbents down 

 the bark and root of the tree, juft-as the farinaceous or oily mat- 

 ter in feeds, and the faccharine matter in fruits, ferve their em- 

 bryons with nutriment, till they acquire leaves and roots. This 

 analogy is as forcible in fo obfcure a fubjedt, as it is curious, and 

 may in large buds, as of the horfe-chefnut, be aim >ft feen by the 

 naked eye ; if with a penknife the remaining rudiment of the 

 laft year's leaf, and of the new bud in its bofom, be cut away 

 flice by flice. The feven ribs of the lad year's leaf will be feen 

 to have arifen from the pith in feven diftincl; points making a 

 curve ; and the new bud to have been produced in their centre, 

 and to have pierced the alburnum and cortex, and grown with- 

 out the afliilance of a mother. A fimilar procefs may be feen 

 on diffeciing a tulip-root in winter $ the leaves, which enclofed 

 the laft year's flower-ftalk, were not neceffkry for the flower ; 

 but each of thefe was the father of a new bud, which may be 

 now found at its bafe ; and which, as it adheres to the parent, 

 required no mother. 



This paternal offspring of vegetables, I mean their buds and 

 bulbs, is attended with a very curious circumilance ; and that 

 is, that they exactly referable their parents, as is obfervable in 

 grafting fruit trees, and in propagating flower-roots ; whereas 

 the feminal offspring of plants, being fupplied with nutriment 

 by the mother, is liable to perpetual variation. Thus alfo in the 

 vegetable clafs dioecia, where the male flowers are produced on 

 one tree, and the female ones on another , the buds of the male 

 trees uniformly produce either male flowers,, or other buds fimi- 

 lar to themfelves , and the buds of the female trees produce 

 either female flowers, or other buds fimilar to themfelves ; 

 whereas the feeds of thefe trees produce either male or female 

 plants. From this analogy of the production of vegetable buds 



without 



