ON THE REFRODCCTION OF BUDS. 353 



having deftroyed the bafe of the plumule, in which the power 

 of reproducing buds probably refides, if fuch power exifts. 



Nature appears to have denied to annual and biennial plants Annwal and bi- 

 (at leafl: (o thofe which have been the fubjeds of my ^^P^"- have^nL^thJs 

 ments) the power which it has given to perennial plants to power. 

 reproduce their buds; but neverthelefs fome biennials poflefs, 

 under peculiar circumtiances, a very.fingular refource, when 

 all their buds have been deftroyed. A turnip,, bred between 

 the Englifli and Swedifn variety, from which I bad cut oft' the 

 greater part of its fruit-ftalks, and of which all the buds had 

 been defiroyed, remained fome weeks iu an apparently dor- 

 mant (iate; after which the firfi feed in each pod germinated, 

 and biirliing the feed-veftel, feemed to execute the office of a 

 bud and leaves to the parent plant, during (he fiiort remaining 

 term of its exi(ience, when its preternalual foliage periflied 

 with it. Whether this property be poiTefled by other biennial 

 plants in common with the turnip, or not, I am not at prefent 

 in poireflTion of lacts to decide, not having made precifely the 

 lame experiment on any other plant. 



I will take this opportunity (o correft an inference that I Correflion of a 

 have drawn in a former paper,* which the facts (though quite "^^"^ '"'*'^' 

 correftly ftated) do not, on fabfequent repetition of the ex- 

 periment, appear to juftify. I have lUted, that when a per- 

 pendicular ftioot of the vine was inverted to a depending pc- 

 fition, and a portion of its bark between two circular incifions 

 round the ftem removed, much more new wood was generated 

 on the lower lip of the wound become uppermoft by the 

 inverted pofition of the branch, than on theoppofite lip, which 

 would not have happened had the branch continued to grow 

 ere6l; and I have inferred that this effect was produced by fap 

 which had defcended by gravitation from the leaves above. 

 But the branch was, as I have there flated, employed as a 

 layer, and the matter which would have accumulated on the 

 oppofile lip of the wound had been employed in the formation 

 of roots, a circumftance which at that time efcaped my atten- 

 tion. The effedts of gravitation on the motion of the delcending 

 fap, and confequent growth of plants, are, I am well fatisfied, 

 from a great variety of experiments, very great ; but it will 

 be very difficult to difcover any method by which the extent 



* Phil. Tranf. of 1803, 



