284 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



protect it in its infancy ; in this sense, which we shall 

 adopt here, they say that a young shoot is naked, or 

 without buds, when at its development it lias no 

 particular integument ; they say that it has a scaly bud, 

 when it presents an integument formed of pieces 

 analogous in texture to scales ; and they may also say 

 that it has a bud with membranous coats or fleshv 

 scales, &c. 



Gardeners are also accustomed to call by the name of 

 bud both the flowers, as yet undeveloped, and the buds 

 (in the sense of botanists) before their expansion ; but 

 botanists have admitted the name of Alabastrum to 

 designate the uuexpanded flower : but let it be remarked 

 that, throughout this chapter, we restrict the name 

 Bud to the integuments of the young shoots at whatever 

 age we examine them. 



Buds present very different appearances according to 

 the place they occupy, and according to the nature of 

 the plant: we shall distinguish in this respect two 

 classes, viz. 1st, caulinary buds, which grow upon the 

 stems of trees and shrubs, or the buds, properly so 

 called ; 2d, those which are formed at the neck of 

 perennial plants, on a level with the surface, as scions, 

 or underground, as bulbs properly so called. 



The origin of these two kinds of buds is always a 

 semi-abortion or degeneration of the foliaceous parts, 

 but their position produces such great changes in their 

 appearance, that it will be better to study them sepa- 

 rately at first, and afterwards to show their points of 

 affinity. 



All Dicotyledonous trees have not their young shoots 

 covered with special integuments ; and these integu- 

 ments themselves, when they exist, proceed always from 

 external leaves or stipules, which, on account of their 

 premature exposure to the action of air and light, suffer 



