00 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



It is necessary, however, here to make some qualifying 

 observations. Every plant possesses a power of forming 

 buds out of any of its cells, when these cells are placed in 

 suitable conditions, itfow, although the normal position 

 of a bud is either at the summit of a shoot, or in the axilla 

 of a leaf, yet buds are frequently found also developing 

 from other parts, such as the leaves and roots; and not un- 

 frequently in the case of trees, where the branches have 

 been pollarded, or cut away, from the cells of the cambium 

 region. It is a fact well known to gardeners, that under* 

 the influence of heat and moisture, the leaves of Bryo- 

 fhyllum calycinum, Gloxinia, Cresneria, &c., may be made 

 to produce buds ; and the production of buds on true roots 

 has been frequently observed in Pyrus Japonica, Madura 

 aurantiaca, and Paulonia imperialis. Portions of the roots 

 of these plants, in a healthy condition, may be made to 

 produce new plants. Hence, in the case of willows and 

 other trees, whose tops have been removed, " it is not al- 

 ways easy to decide, without dissection, whether the buds 

 are really adventitious, or merely latent axillary buds sti- 

 mulated into development."* 



Buds are always formed from the cellular portion of the 

 stem, and in normal cases they may be distinctly traced on 

 young branches to the pith or medullary rays. This fact 

 is illustrated by the dark lines drawn through the centre of 

 the conical ramifications of the diagram on page 59, which 

 represents the pith in the centre of the branch and its 

 branchlets, and' shows its connection with their buds or 

 developing points. In those cases where a bud has been 

 formed by a leaf which has died years ago, and has main- 

 tained its position on the exterior bark in alatent condition, 

 if a section be made at the point of the stem where it is 

 seen to protrude, the vegetative course of the bud will be 

 marked by a line of pith called the wake of the bud, which 

 traverses the several layers from the centre outward.f It 

 follows from this, that branches of the same age may have 



* An Elementary Course of Botany, Structural, Physiological, and Sys- 

 tematic, by Arthur Henfey, page 69. 



-\ See article "Botany," in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 



