ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION'. 215 



this phenomenon is purely physiological, and can hardly 

 be placed in Organography; thus, when we make a 

 notch in the bark of a tree, a swelling, that is to say a 

 deposit of juices, is caused there by the stagnation of 

 the sap, and the latent germs are developed with fa- 

 cility at this point; this fact is only connected with 

 Organography in these respects : — 



1st. That every species presents fixed points where 

 certain developments of germs readily take place. 



2d. That certain species present particular points 

 where there is naturally a stagnation of the juices and a 

 deposit of nourishment, and where, consequently, the 

 germs are already visible in the natural state or more 

 easily developed. 



As to the first respect, we remark that the axils of the 

 leaves are the principal of these fixed points in all 

 plants where, by the ordinary progress of vegetation, 

 there is facility for the development of the germs of 

 branches : this is what happens in the natural course of 

 things, forming ordinary buds. 



As to the second, there are plants which present 

 naturally, here and there, articulations or transverse 

 swellings, which retain the sap, form deposits of nou- 

 rishment, and consequently favour the development of 

 germs ; such are the articulations of Pinks, Vines, and 

 Geraniums, the nodes of the Graminea?, &c. There 

 are others which form, here and there, kinds of ex- 

 ostoses or tubercules filled with a quantity of fecula, and 

 which have a tendency to cause the germs situated upon 

 their surface to be developed ; such are Potatoes, &c. : 

 the germs appear upon these tubercules as opaque slightly 

 fleshy points, to which the name of Eyes is frequently 

 given. Every one knows, at least from the popular 

 example of the Potatoe, that these eyes or germs, when 

 separated from the feculent part of the tubercule and 



