OF PROPAGATION BY EYES AND KNAURS. 187 



port a bud of the Vine, and to occasion the formation 

 of minute leaves and roots : but the early growth of 

 such plants was extremely slender and feeble, as if 

 they had sprung from small seeds ; and the buds of 

 the same plant, wholly detached from the alburnum, 

 were incapable of retaining life. The quantity of 

 alburnum being increased, the growth of the buds 

 increased in the same proportion ; and when cuttings 

 of a foot long, and composed chiefly of two-years old 

 wood, were employed, the first growth of the buds 

 was nearly as strong ■ as it would have been, if the 

 cuttings had not been detached from the tree. The 

 quantity of alburnum in every young and thriving 

 tree, exclusive of the Palm tribe, is proportionate to 

 the number of its buds ; and if the number of these 

 were, in any instance, ascertained and compared with 

 the quantity of alburnous matter in the branches and 

 stem and roots, it would be found that nature has 

 always formed a reservoir sufficiently extensive to 

 supply every bud. But those of a cutting, under 

 the most favourable circumstances, must derive their 

 nutriment from a more limited and precarious source ; 

 and it is therefore expedient that the gardener should, 

 in the first instance, make the most ample provision 

 conveniently within his power for their maintenance, 

 and that he should subsequently attend very closely 

 to the economical expenditure of such provision." 

 {Horticultural Transactions, ii. 115.) 



In the Potato the requisite provision of organisa- 

 ble matter is always secured, in consequence of the 

 great difficulty of separating an eye of that plant, 



