REJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. 19 



in a stage of close connection of the organs. Those things 

 which are subsequently removed and unfolded, are here 

 still closely approximated, and, as it were, fitted one 

 within another. The bud is, therefore, properly regarded 

 as an entire young plant, and each new bud on an old 

 stem as a new plant, as an individual : "Gemmce totidem 

 herhce" was an axiom laid down even by Linnaeus, and 

 since his day has oftentimes been repeated.* Neverthe- 

 less, this conception of the bud has remained itself to a 

 certain extent in the condition of a bud, since the sur- 

 prising abundance of conclusions derivable from it, have 

 never been properly developed up to the present time. 

 In the first place, however, the idea of the bud as indi- 

 vidual still requires an essential clearing up. Since the 

 word hud merely expresses a certain stage of existence of 

 the thing in question, we must here rather call this sprout 

 iSpross), in the definite sense that we here understand 

 by sprout all belonging to one axis of the plant, that we 

 therefore regard as belonging to a sprout all which is 

 produced directly from one centre of vegetation [punctum 

 vegetationis) , and belongs essentially to one line of deve- 

 lopment. Eye and bud are only the commencement and 

 young condition of the sprout ; and that which we call 

 bud frequently comprehends only one part, and not the 

 whole of the sprout, as when the lower portion of a sprout 

 is already unfolded and the upper part of it alone remains 

 in the condition of a bud. Thus every richly clothed, 

 but gradually progressing and gradually unfolding leaf- 

 bearing axis, as, for example, the sucker of the willow, 

 the rosette of the lettuce before its flower-stalk has arisen, 

 the crown of the palm or of the agave, has a bud (a 

 "heart") hidden among the uppermost leaves, which 

 bud, however, passes by almost imperceptible gradations 

 into the unfolded part of the crown, rosette, or shoot. 

 In other cases there is a sharper division between the 

 earlier unfolded parts and those remaining long in the 



* For instance, by Roper, (' Linnaea,' 1836, p. 434,) and quite recently by 

 J. N. Carus, {' Zur ndheren Kenniniss des Oenerationswechseh,' 30.) 



