4 



INDIVIDUALITY 



Sect. I. 4. 



long fhoots of vines, willows, and briars; in this refpe6l refembling 

 the wires of ftrawberries and other creeping plants. Thus the caudex 

 of perennial herbaceous plants confifts of a broad plate, buried be- 

 neath the foil to protect it from the froft ; while the caudex of 

 buds of trees confifts of a long vafcular cord extending from the bud 

 on the branch to the radicle beneath the earth, and endures the winter 



frofts without injury. 



3. Thefe buds are properly biennial plants, as they are generated 

 in one fummer, and in the next either produce feeds and die, or pro- 

 duce other buds, \yhofe caudexes form a new bark over the former 

 one, that of the laft year firfl becoming a fofter or more porous v/ood, 

 called alburnum, or fap-wood, and gradually hardening into folid 

 timber, which ceafes to pofl'efs vegetable life. 



Thefe long caudexes of the individual buds of trees, which confti- 



tute their bark, are well fe.en In the cloth made from the mulberry- 

 bark brought from Otaheite. On infpeding this cloth the long fibres 

 are feen in fome places to adhere, where it is probable they occafion- 

 ally inofculate, like fome of the vefiels in animal bodies ; becaufe 

 when fome buds are cut off, the neighbouring ones flourifli with 

 greater vigour, being fupplied with more of the nutritious juices. 

 This informs us why the upper lip of an horizontal wound made 



I 



in the bark of a tree grows downwards with fo much greater 

 expedition than the under one grows upwards to meet it ; as the de- 

 fcending caudexes of the individual buds are fupplied diredly with 



nutriment from the 



vegetable arteries 



after the oxygenation of 



the blood in their leaves ; whereas the under lip of the wound is nou- 

 rifhed only by the lateral or inofculating veilels, which fupplies us 



with another argument againfl: the individuality of trees, and in fa- 

 vour of that of buds. 



4. The buds producing flowers are each an individual being as well 



as 



f^ 



'- , . 



I 



