ON THE REPRODUCTION OP BUDS. 349 



If any additional argument be neceflary in fupport of t!iis 

 opinion, I may alfo notice the ftriking analogy which fubfifts 

 between the feparation of one bone of the Ikull from another 

 by a future ; and that feparation which exifts between the 

 body of a cylindrical bone and its epiphyfis. They each 

 remain only for a certain length of time ; each allows the 

 Interpol! tion of a fecretory organ ; and both begin fo be ob- 

 literated when the bones with which they areconnefted have 

 completed their growth, and their continuance is no longer 

 neceflary. 



XIV. 



OntheReproduSlionof Buds. 5j/Thomas Andrew Knight^ 

 Efq. F.R.S* 



My DEAR Sir, 



HjVERY tree in the ordinary courfe of ils growth generates. If t'le genc- 

 in each feafon, thofe buds which expand in the fucceeding f^^Co^ ^^ ,jg. 

 fpring; and the buds thus generated, contain, in many inftances, ftroyed, others 

 the whole of the leaves vviiich appear in the following fummer. *"^^ ^'^° ^^^ 

 But if thefe buds be deftroyed during the winter or early part 

 of the fpring, other buds, in many fpecies of trees, are gene- 

 rated, which in every refpeft perform Iheoifice of thofe wljich 

 previoufly exifted, except tfiat they never afford fruit or blof- 

 foms. Tliis reprodudion of buds has not etcaped the notice 

 of naturalifts; but it does not appear to have been afcertained 

 by them from which, amongft the various fubflances of the 

 tree, the buds derive their origin. 



Du Hamel conceived that reproduced buds fprang from pre- I^" Hamel'sopi- 

 1 L . ,1 -n c r I . • "'on diat thefe 



organized germs ; but the exutence or lucn germs has not, m ^^^ ^^.^ ^Yom 

 any inllance, been proved, and it is well known that the roots, pre-orgaaized 

 and trunk, and branches of many fpecies of trees will, under ^^'^"^^* 

 proper management, afford buds from every part of their 

 furfaces; and therefore, if this hypothefis be well founded, Obje(aion. 

 many millions of fuch germs muft be annually generated in 

 every Iar;^e tree; not one of which in the ordinary courfe of 

 nature Wiil come into adion : and as nature, amidfl all its exu- 



* Phil.Tranf. 1805; 



berance. 



