Vegetable Staticks. 149 



draw much nourifhment thro'/ x, and there- 

 by make it grow ; and I believe, if, vice 

 verfa, there were a leaf-bearing Bud at z s 

 and none at x, that then the iplinter z 

 would grow more than x. 



The reafon of my conjecture I ground 

 upon this Experiment, viz. I choie two 

 thriving fhoots of a dwarf Pear- tree, 1 1 a a y 

 Fig. 28, 29. At three quarters of an inch 

 diftance I took half an inch breadth of bark 

 off each of them, in feveral places, viz. 

 2,4,6,8, and at 10, 12, 14. Everyone of 

 the remaining ringlets of bark had a leaf- 

 bearing bud, which produced leaves the 

 following fummer, except the ringlet 13, 

 which had no fuch Bud. The ringlet 9 

 and 11 of a a grew and fwelled at their 

 bottoms till Augufl, but the ringlet 13 did 

 not increafe at all, and in Angujl the whole 

 fhoot a a withered and died; but the (hoot 

 / / lives and thrives well, each of its ringlets 

 fwelling much at the bottom: Whch fwel- 

 lings at their bottoms muft be attributed 

 to fome other caufe than the ftoppage of 

 the fap in its return downwards, becaufe in 

 the (hoot //, its return downwards is in- 

 tercepted three feveral times by cutting 

 away the bark at 2, 4, 6. The larger and 



L 3 niore 



