272 PLAJN AND PLEASANT TALK 



other, especially in popular writings, will always be fruitful 

 of iiiUi-niu-fptions ami mistakes. 



The next idea srt forth in tin- paragraph which \vr re\ ic\v, is, 

 the essential eftMtfidJorfty of buds and seeds. The writi-r 

 thinks that a plant from a seed is a new organization, but a 

 plant from a bud or graft (which is but a developed bud) is 

 but a continuation of a previous plant. With the exception 

 of their integuments, a bud and a seed are the same thing 

 A seed is a bud prepared for one set of circumstances, and 

 a bud is a seed prepared for another set of circumstances 

 it is the same embryo in different garments. The seed lias 

 boon called, therefore, a "primary bud," the dilVoionco 

 beng one of condition and not of nature. 



It is manifest, then, that the plant which springs from a 

 bud is as really a new plant as that which springs from a 

 seed ; and it is equally true, that a seed may convey the 

 weakness and diseases of its parent with as much facility as 

 a bud or a graft does. If the feebleness of a tree is general, 

 its functions languid, its secretions thin, then a bud or graft 

 will be feeble, and so would be its seed ; or if a tree be 

 thoroughly tainted with disease, the buds would not escape, 

 nor the tree springing from them neither would its seed, 

 or a tree springing from it. A tree from a bud of the 

 Doyenne pear is just as much a new tree a? ouo from its 

 seed. 



The idea which we controvert has received encoura La- 

 ment from the fact, that a bud produces a fruit like the 

 parent tree, while, oftentimes, a seed yields only a variety 

 of such fruit. But, it is probable that this is never the case 

 with seeds except when they have been brought into a 

 state of what Van Mons calls variation. In their natural 

 and uncultivated state, seeds will reproduce their parent 

 with as much fidelity as a bud or a graft. 



The liability of a variety to run out, when propagated by 

 bud or graft, is not a whit greater than when prop.igat.ed by 

 seed, in so far as the nature of the vegetable is concerned. 



