30 



ANALYTICAL CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. 



flow of the sap is always most rapid wlien the vital action 

 is strongest. In the spring, when the buds of the pre- 

 vious year are expanding into leaves ; and in summer 

 when the buds for the coming year are just beginning 

 to be formed, there is a strong determination of sap to 

 the extremities. Light, Heat, Electricity and Winds, 

 accelerate the vital forces, and produce some remark- 

 able effects, which they could only do by virtue of the 

 existing vitality ; and it is highly probable that the 

 circulation of the fluids is more or less strongly impelled 

 by all these forces. Light exerts a powerful influence on 

 the leaves directly, and through them, indirectly, on the 

 whole system. Vegetation is always more rapid and 

 powerful in warm than in cold climates ; and it is said 

 that no natural degree of heat would prove injurious, 

 provided there is also a sufficiency of moisture. Winds 

 not only afibrd mechanical exercise ; but they lave the 

 whole system in fresh currents, which are thus driven 

 through the pores of the leaf, and carry electrical stimu- 

 lants into the whole circulation. When a plant dies the 

 flow of the sap is restrained, and the Endosmose is at once 

 arrested. Thus you see that no merely mechanical 

 agency can satisfactorily account for the actions of living 

 beings. They have machinery, it is true, and this must 

 be moved by mechanical agency ; but the moving power 

 stands back of all ; for the structure, in being vitalized, 

 passes away from under the common laws of dead matter. 

 170. Choice of Nutriment. — That plants do have 

 a power of selection, or a kind of choice in the substances 

 that surround them, is absolutely certain. From the 

 self-same soil a Beet-root, or Potato, will take up potash, 

 a Clover-plant lime, and Wheat, phosphoric acid for the 

 elaboration of its seed, and siles for the support of its 

 stalk. It has also been observed that roots lengthen 

 most rapidly in the direction of the most favorable con- 

 ditions, thus appearing to seek, by a kind of instinct, the 

 water and gases that are to be found in richer soils. 

 But the idea of their being governed by instinctive pre- 

 ferences is now wholly exploded. We can easily see 

 that they must grow most rapidly where they find the 

 best means of growth ; and thus literal and prosaic 

 Science very coolly sets Poetry aside. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE BUD. 



171. A tree should not be considered as a single 



Do plants choose their food ? Is it an instinctive process ? How ex- 

 plained? 



Leading subject What may a Tree be considered ? Deline Bud. Where 



individual, but rather as a compound being, consisting 

 of as many individuals as it may contain buds. 



172. A Bud is a scaly envelope containing the 

 rudiments of a new plant, which it holds in a latent 

 state, until circumstances favor their development. 

 At figs. 1 and 1 1 are different forms of the bud. The 

 trees and shrubs of warm climates do not form scaly 

 buds, but unfold their leaves directly to the air. When- 

 ever there is snow a part of the year, and severe frosts 

 occur, buds are produced for the protection of the latent 

 plantlets. 



173. Structure of the Bud. — In this is found one 

 of the most beautiful provisions of life. The young 

 Plant is enveloped in a coat of downy fibre, with layer 

 upon layer, to make it soft and warm. Its roof is 

 thatched with stronger folds ; and over the whole is 

 spread a coat of resin, which renders it impenetrable 

 both to cold and wet. Thus wrapped in its silken 

 swaddling clothes, the Plantlet sleeps securely in its 

 warm retreat, until the latent power is excited, and it 

 comes forth to join the troop of dancing leaves, and re- 

 joice in the greenness of Spring — or perhaps to assert its 

 individuality by the assumption of a new life. 



174. The Embryo Plant remains latent in the bud, 

 as it often does in the seed,. and will not grow till it is 

 placed in circumstances favorable to its development. 

 But that it does exist in the bud, and has the capacity of 

 unfolding itself into a new plant, is shown by the familiar 

 operations of Grafting, Layering, and Budding, which 

 consist simply of transferring the bud to conditions where 

 its specific vitality may be excited, and its individual life 

 called forth. 



175. The Plumule, or ascending portion of the stem, 

 originally consists of a growing point, or, in other words, 

 a hud, which, in its undeveloped state, exists in the 

 embryo. By the development of this a section of stem 

 is produced, still terminated by a bud, which always 

 finishes and crowns the annual growth. In some trees, 

 as the White Birch and Cherry, the primary axis, or 

 principal stem, continues to maintain its ascendency ; and 

 with its aspiring point annually crowned by a new leaf- 

 bud, it remains distinct from the branches. But in most 

 cases, by repeated ramifications, it becomes indistinguish- 

 ably merged in its own ofishoots ; and at the summit 

 several points of about equal height appear, neither of 

 which has any special claim to the distinction of belong- 

 ing to the primitive stem, as we often see in the Lime 

 and Apple-trees. 



are scaly buds formed ? Where not formed? Structure of the Bud, describe. 

 Embryo, proofs of its existence in the bud. Process of its development and 

 vegetation, describe. Primary axis, in what trees distinguishable ? — in what not? 



