154 LEAF-BUDS. 



101. If no leaf-buds are called into action, there will be no 

 addition of wood : and consequently, the destruction or ab- 

 sence of leaf-buds is accompanied by the absence of wood : as 

 is proved by a shoot, the upper buds of which are destroyed 

 and the lower allowed to develope. The lower part of the 

 shoot will increase in diameter : the upper will remain of its 

 original dimensions. 



102. The quantity of wood, therefore, depends upon the 

 quantity of leaf- buds that develope. 



103. It is of the great st importance to bear this in mind in 

 pruning timber trees : for excessive pruning must necessarily 

 be injurious to the quantity of produce. 



104. If a cutting with a leaf-bud on it be placed in circum- 

 stances fitted to the developement of the latter, it will grow 

 and become a nev* plant. 



105. If this happens when the cutting is inserted in the 

 earth, the new plant is said by gardeners, to be upon its own 

 bottom. 



106. But if it happens when the cutting is applied to the 

 dissevered end of another individual, called a stock, the roots 

 are insinuated into the tissue of the stock, and a plant is said 

 to be grafted; the cutting - being called a scion. 



107. There is, therefore, little difference between cuttings 

 and scions, except that the former root into the earth, the 

 latter into another plant. 



108 But if a cutting of the same plant without a leaf-bud 

 upon it be placed in the same circumstances, it will not grow 

 but will die. 



109. Unless its vital powers are sufficient to enable it to 

 develope an adventitious leaf-bud. (119.) 



110. A leaf-bud separated from the stem will also become a 

 new individual, if its vital energy is sufficiently powerful. 



111. And this, whether it is planted in earth, into which it 

 roots, like a cutting, or in a new individual to which it ad- 

 heres and grows like a scion. In the former case it is called 

 an eye, in the latter a bad. 



112. Every leaf-bud has, therefore, its own distinct system 

 of life, and of growth. 



113. And as all the leaf-buds of an individual are exactly 

 alike, it follows that a plant is a collection of a great number 

 of distinct identical systems of life, and consequently a com- 

 pound individual. 



114. Regular leaf-buds being generated in the axillae of the 

 leaves, it is there that they are always to be sought 



115. And if they cannot be discovered by ocular inspection, 

 it may nevertheless be always inferred with confidence that 

 they exist in such situations, and may possibly be called from 

 their dormant state into life. 



116. Hence, w r herever the scar of a leaf or the remains of a 

 leaf, can be discovered, there it is to be understood that the 



