ON LEAVES. (33 



Emily. I have often examined these buds with great 

 interest, and admired the ingenious manner in which the 

 leaves were so closely packed, in order to be contained 

 within them. Do the same buds produce both leaves and 

 flowers ? 



Mrs. B. Buds vary in this respect not only in differ- 

 ent plants, but sometimes even in the same individual : 

 some sprouting into flowers and fruits ; others into leaves 

 only, and branches ; and there are buds of a third descrip- 

 tion, which develope both fruit and leaves. The first kind 

 is full and round ; the second, smaller and more pointed ; 

 and the third, both in size and shape, forms a medium 

 between the other two. 



Caroline. How essential it must be for a gardener to 

 be able to distinguish these buds ! For if, in pruning a 

 tree, he were to lop the branches which contained most 

 of the fruit-buds, and retain those which had more leaf- 

 buds, he would have a very poor crop of fruit. A.re these 

 three species of buds common to all trees ? 



Mrs. B. No ; the buds of the horse-chesnut, which are 

 so large, scaly, and glutinous, are all of the mixed kind ; 

 those of the apple and pear are of the two distinct species. 



Endogenous plants, or monocotyledons, scarcely ever 

 produce more than one single bud annually ; the cabbage 

 of the palm-tree is its bud, and the leaves and flowers 

 are folded within it. The cocoa-nut and date trees de- 

 velope their flowers and foliage in the same manner. 



Bulbous plants (the endogenous plants of our temper- 

 ate climate) are of the same description. I have already 

 observed, that their stem is contained within the bulb ; 

 but you have yet to learn that this bulb is in fact the bud 

 or cabbage, containing not only the stem, but also the 

 leaves and flowers. The scales formed for the rudiments 

 of undevoloped leaves are particularly distinct in bulbous 

 roots, especially in the onion. 



Emily. Thus then a lily, a tulip, or a hyacinth, are 

 all contained within their bulbs, which we have been ac- 

 customed to consider merely as their root. But these 



335. Three kinds of buds are named What are they! 336. Are 

 they common to all trees'? 337. What is said of the palm-tree, the 

 cocoa-nut, and the date-tree'? 338. What is contained in the bulbous 

 roots'? 339- What is said of the onionl 



