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PRODUCTION 



Sect. XV. 2. i* , 



II. 



TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF FRUIT-BUDS. 



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The terms ftrength and weaknefs, in their ufual acceptation, when 

 applied to the vegetation of trees, are metaphorical expreffions, or 

 denote the effed or confequence, rather than the caufe, of their 

 bearino- leaf-buds or flower-buds, as fpoken of in Seel. IX. 2. 7. For 

 the produdion of leaf- buds, or flower-buds, though it may be faid to 

 accompany the greater or lefs vigour of a tree, depends on the fa- 

 cility or difficulty, with which the long caudexes of the new buds, 

 which conftitute the filaments of the bark, can be generated. 



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Thus the new vegetable prcdudion formed in the axilla of a leaf 

 about Midfummer, which is called a leaf-bud, confifts of many em- 

 bryon buds, perhaps twenty or thirty, which are to form the next 

 year's floot ; and each of thefe muft be furnifhed at the fame time 

 with a long caudex in miniature, extending from the leaf or fummit 

 to its radicle or bafe ; which confids of umbilical veffels for its vernal 

 nutriment, and of a continuation of other abforbent velTels, and of 

 arteries and veins, as defcribed in Sed.VlI. i. 7. which paffes along 

 the branches and trunk from the apex or leaf of the bud in the air 

 to its bafe or radicle in the ground ; and which thus forms the new 

 bark, and contributes to thicken and flrengthen the trunk and branches 



of the tree; becaufe each new leaf-bud with its fummit, caudex, and 

 radicle, continues afterwards to adhere to the parent tree. 



But the production in the axilla of a leaf, which is called a flower- 

 bud, or fruit-bud, confifts only of an individual vegetable with the 

 rudiments of a number of flowers, with one caudex for its growth 

 and nutriment; for as the feed falls from the tree, when ripe, no 

 new apparatus of caudexes in miniature for each individual feed, as 

 for each individual embryon-bud, is required to pafs down the trunk 

 into the ground to form a new bark ; and thus to thicken and 



to flrengthen the trunk and branches. 



Add 



