20 MEMBERS OF PLANTS. 



marsh twayblade ; and M. Turpin found them on the 

 surface of the leaf in the star of Bethlehem. 



When a tree puts forth very many buds, it is liable 

 to exhaust its strength in nourishing them. In order 

 in some measure to prevent this, Providence has cre- 

 ated several birds, such as bullfinches, which devour 

 flower buds in winter, and many insects which devour 

 them in spring ; but it is not true, as has been said, 

 that a tree rendered sickly by over production, is most 

 favourable to the hatching of the eggs of such insects ; 

 and much less true that bud-eating insects prefer sickly 

 to vigorous buds. 



Bonnet arranged buds according as they are placed 

 opposite each other or alternating on opposite sides of 

 a branch ; in form of a ring round a branch ; or in 

 form of a spiral round a branch. When they are 

 opposite, there are three buds at the top of the branch; 

 when alternate, only one. In pines the buds are only 

 at the summit, and several shoots spring from one bud. 



Darwin fancied each bud to be a complete indivi- 

 dual plant, and a tree to be an aggregate of buds ; 

 because when a bud is cut from one tree and inserted 

 into another, it is found to grow into a perfect branch, 

 a circumstance from which gardeners have derived the 

 ingenious art of budding or bud-grafting. Baron 

 Tschudy has in this way grafted the potato on the 

 love-apple, and the melon on the gourd ; and others 

 have grafted fine varieties of the dahlia on more com- 

 mon sorts, by inserting the young buds or eyes into 

 the root. 



(U In Latin, Oculi. 



