S^cr. XXXIX. 2. GENERATION. 551 



with both nutriment and oxygenation, till the death 

 of the parent-leaf in autumn. And in this refpeft 

 it differs from the fetus of viviparous animals. Se- 

 condly, that then the bark-verTels belonging to the 

 dead-leaf, and in which I fuppofe a kind of manna 

 to have been depofited, become now the placenta! 

 veflcls, if they may be fo called, of the new bud. 

 Irom the vernal fap thus produced of one fugar- 

 maple-ffee in New York and in Pennfylvania, five 

 or fix pounds of good fugar may be made annually 

 without defhoying the tree. Account of maple-fugar 

 by B. Ruirr. London, Phillips. (See Botanic Garden, 

 Part I. additional note on vegetable placentation.) 



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 

 matter in feeds, and the faccharine matter in fruits, 

 ferve their embryons with nutriment, till they ac- 

 quire leaves and roots. This analogy is as foiceable 

 in fo obfcure a fubject, as it is curious, and may in 

 large buds, as of the horfe-chefnut, be almoft feen 

 by the naked eye ; if with a pen-knife the remain- 

 ing rudiment of the lad year's leaf, and of the 

 new bud in its bofom, be cut away flice by flice. 

 The feven ribs of the laft year's leaif will be feen to 

 have arifen from the pith in feven diflindl 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 without the afiiit* 

 ance of a mother. A fimilar procefs may be feen 

 oa differing a tulip root in winter ; the leaves, which 

 inclofed the la(t year's flower-ftalk, were not necef- 

 fary 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,requiredno mother. 



This paternal offspring of vegetables, I mean their 

 buds and bulbs, is attended with a very curious cir- 



cumftance ; 



