i550 ON THE REPRODUCTION OP BUDS. 



berance, does not abound in ufelefs produdions, the opinlens 

 of this illuftrious ph)iiologift are, in this cafe, probably erro- 

 neous. 

 Suppofnion that Other naturalifts have fuppofed the buds, when reprodiTced, 

 they are .iftbrdsd (q fpring from the plfxiis of vefTels which conftitutes the in- 

 by the bark. i . • • 



ternal bark ; and this opinion is, I believe, much entertained 



by modern botaiiifts ; it neverthelefs appears to be unfounded, 

 as the fadts I (liall proceed to (late will evince. 

 Inftancc to the ^^ ^'''^ friiii-ftalks of the fea cale (cramhe maritima) be cut 

 contrary in fea off near the ground in the fpring, the medullary fubftance, 

 buds. williin that part of the ftalk which remains attached to the 



root, decays ; and a cup is thus formed in which water colleds 

 in the fucceeding winter. The fides of this cup confift of a 

 woody fubltance, which in its texture and office, and mode of 

 generation, agrees perfeftly with the alburnum of trees; and 

 I conceive it to be as perfed alburnum, as the white wood of 

 the oak or elm: and from the interior part of this fubftance, 

 within the cup, I have frequently obferved new buds to be 

 generated in the enfuing fpring. It is fufficiently obvious that 

 the buds in this cafe do not fpring from the bark ; but it is not 

 equally evident that they might not have fprung from fonae 

 remains of ihe medulla. 

 Potatoes afford I" ^^^ autumn of 1802, I difcovered that the potatoe pof- 

 budsatthecut fefled a fimilur power of reproducing its buds. Some plants 

 "' ^ '^* of this fpecieshad been {ei, rather late in (he preceding fpring, 



in very dry ground, where, through want of moifiure, they 

 vegetated very feebly ; and the portions of the old roots re- 

 mained found and entire till the fucceeding autumn. Being 

 then moiftened by rain, many fmall tubers were generated on 

 the furfaces made by the knife in dividing the roots into cut- 

 tings ; and the buds of thefe, in many inflances, elongated 

 into runners, which gave exHtence to other tubers, fome of 

 which I had the pleafure to fend to you. 

 »— and therefore ^ have in a former paper remarked, that the potatoe confifts 

 not from the of four diftind fubftances, the epidermis, the true (kin, the 

 bark, and its internal fubftance, which, from its mode of forma- 

 tion, and fubfequent otfice, I have (uppofed to be alburnous: 

 there is alfo in tiie young tubes a tranfparent line through the 

 centre, which is probably its medulla. The buds and runners 

 fprang from the fubftance which I conceive to be the alburnum 

 of the root^ and neither from the central part of it, nor from 



the 



