148 



SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 



Sect. IX. 



S^ 



I- 5 



perfe£l ones, as they acquire after a few years the power of produc- 

 ing fexual organs, and in confequence a feminal progeny. In thefe 

 perennial herbaceous plants and trees a magazine of nutriment is pro- 

 vided in their roots or fap-wood, to fupply the new buds, which are 

 to grow in the enfuing fpring. 



Whence it appears, that all the vegetables of this climate may be 

 termed biennial plants ; as the feeds of fome, and the buds or bulbs 

 of others, are produced in one fummer, and flourifh and die In the 

 next ; thofe which are called annuals or biennials leaving behind them 

 a future progeny of feeds only ; thofe, which are termed perennial 

 herbaceous plants, leaving behind them the firft year or two a pro- 

 of bulbs or root-buds only, and afterwards a progeny of feeds 



■ 



alfo ; while the perennial arborcfcent vegetables leave behind them a 

 progeny of buds only for feveral fucceffive years, and afterwards a 

 progeny of both buds and feeds. 



Thus the bulb from a tulip-feed produces a more perfect bulb an- 

 nually, till it flowers, I believe, on the fifth year. It then produces 



geny 



A 



a flower, and alfo one perfe(Sl bulb, which flowers the next year ; 



and fome other lefs perfedl bulbs, which are fucceeded by more perfect 

 ones annually, till they alfo flower. Whence I conclude, that no 

 tulip bulb flowers till the fourth or fifth generation. 



. It is probable, that a fimilar circumflance occurs in other vegeta- 

 bles, as in apple-trees ; and that the buds of thefe do not produce 

 fexual organs, and a eonfequent feminal progeny, till the twelfth or 

 fourteenth generation of the bud from the feed ; each of thofe buds 

 neverthelefs producing one principal bud annually more perfe(£t than 

 itfelf, and many lateral buds lefs perfect than itfelf ; that is, at a greater 

 diftance'from that il:ate of maturity which enables it to form a flower. 

 This art of diftinguifliing the greater or lefs maturity of buds is a 

 matter of great importance in the management of fruit-trees, as in 

 many of them the central bud becomes a fpur one year, and flowers 



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