OF THE INDIVIDUAL PLANT. 301 



same natural families, we so frequently find plants of 

 various durations. 



The individual plants proceeding from fecundated 

 germs (seeds), or unfecundated ones (bulbs/tubercules, or 

 young shoots), are some of them endowed with the faculty 

 of drawing up the sap by their own roots, and others 

 are devoid of this faculty, but are capable of receiving 

 the sap drawn up by the others ; thus, the individuals 

 proceeding from seeds are almost always provided with 

 roots to nourish them. The Misseltoe is an example of 

 a plant, which, although proceeding from a seed, has no 

 true root ; and its neck, implanted upon another plant, is 

 nourished at its expense, exactly as a bud inserted by 

 grafting. The individuals proceeding from bulbs or 

 tubercules are similar to those from seeds, as regards 

 the existence of roots. 



Individuals produced in the manner of buds are con- 

 stantly devoid of roots, and are nourished by the sap 

 which is transmitted to them through the woody body 

 of the plant upon which they grow ; but if by any cause 

 the development of adventitious roots from the lenticils 

 be favoured there, then these individuals can live when 

 separated from the one which gave birth to them. The 

 processes by which we obtain new individuals are known 

 by the names of making Cuttings or Layers ; the graft 

 is nothing but the transplanting of a young shoot. The 

 laws relating to the duration of plants, or, rather, the 

 manners of expressing these laws, are subordinate to the 

 ideas adopted with regard to vegetable individuality; but 

 as this subject is entirely physiological, I shall here 

 confine myself to stating, from the preceding considera- 

 tions, that, with a small number of exceptions perhaps 

 even doubtful, plants are aggregations of as many indi- 

 viduals as there have been seeds or buds developed to 

 concur in their formation ; and that the plant is conse- 



