260 LONG VITALITY OF THE ORANGE-TEEE, 



close, cleaned, and those -which were quite dead removed. A mixture 

 of good well-sifted earth was prepared, after which the trees were 

 replanted in the same tuhs ; a thick stratum of potsherds heing put in 

 first. Water was applied to the trees with the greatest caution ; the 

 branches which formed the head were either drawn together or cut off 

 to within a yard of the stem, and the two or three years-old wood was 

 cut hack to the young branches. This operation being performed, they 

 remained for a year without exhibiting any sign of vegetation ; but the 

 following year, one hundred out of three hundred developed buds. M. 

 Richg, who saw them, assured me that they were very vigorous, and 

 bid fair to become fine trees. 



" When woody plants are placed in analogous conditions, they can, 

 notwithstanding they are deprived of a large portion of their organs 

 of nutrition, live for a long time. It wiU be observed, that the trunk 

 of the Orange which remained for several years in the cellar, was in a 

 more favoTirable position for absorbing moisture by its bark, than those 

 Oranges which were for six years in a conservatory hermetically sealed, 

 each planted in a separate tub, the earth in which, without doubt, was 

 much drier than the soil and atmosphere of the cellar. I have also 

 made experiments in a somewhat" similar situation as the cellar of 

 which I have spoken. I have placed stems there with or without roots, 

 after having cut the branches to three or four inches in length, and the 

 roots in the same manner ; for without this precaution all that I have 

 tried have not lived more than a year. The situation was moist rather 

 than dry, and almost dark. Diflferent stems of trees so treated have 

 developed adventitious buds for several years,, and being afterwards 

 replanted, they have grown well without showing any remarkable 

 alteration. Two stems of Moras alba from 2 to 3 yards long, one being 

 6J, the other 4 inches in diameter, produced, during four years, in this 

 situation, adventitious buds, from which young branches 4 to 6J inches 

 long sprung, furnished with small leaves ; but these young shoots were 

 partly destroyed during the winter by the moisture. Two pieces of 

 TJlmus campestris, of nearly the same thickness, have grown during 

 five years. Two pieces of Robinia pseudo-acacia, one 7 inches in 

 diameter, and the other 5J, have both vegetated for three years, as 

 well as a common Pear-tree 4 inches in diameter ; so also the stem of 

 a Whitethorn 3^ inches in diameter. Populus virginiana and P. nigra, 

 6^ inches in diameter, have produced buds during five years. 



" I have made the same experiments on some pieces of Willow from 

 1 to 2 inches in diameter; they also produced new buds. Moreover, 

 there formed, every year, on these stems, at intervals, productions 

 which then dried down to the wood, and were soon afterwards covered 

 with fungi and mouldiness; but notwithstanding this, buds were 

 developed on the green parts, and these continued to grow, like the 

 preceding. 



