250 AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE. 



Single Eyes. The most perfect mode of prop- 

 agating any plant is that furnished by nature, 

 which is the seed. The seed contains the per- 

 fect plant in embryo or miniature. The near, 

 est approach to seed is the bud, which may 

 also be said to contain the plant in embryo, 

 with perhaps the single exception of the radi. 

 cle; the germ of which, however, may be said 

 to exist, at least in some buds ; for if the bud 

 of a grape vine, and the buds of some other 

 kinds of plants, be carefully dissected or de- 

 tached from the parent plant, and placed under 

 favorable conditions, they will develop into 

 perfect plants of their kind. We have conduct- 

 ed a series of . experiments with a view of 

 establishing a general rule for all buds, but we 

 are not prepared quite yet to state it. The 

 analogy, however, between a seed and a bud, 

 is a recognized fact. In the seed, the cotyle- 

 dons support the plant while the mouths or 

 rootlets are being formed on the radicle. Now 

 if, in the grape vine, for example, we take 

 a small portion of the cane (or mother plant) 

 on each side of the bud, to support the infant 

 plant while it is forming mouths of its own, 

 we have something that answers to the cotyle- 

 dons in the seed, and the analogy between the 



