EYES ARE ASSISTED BY OLD WOOD. 265 



tree ; but it does not contain, nor is it at all able to prepare and 

 assimilate, the organisable matter required for its extension 

 and development. This must be derived from a different 

 source, tbe alburnous substance of the tree, which appears the 

 reservoir, in aU this tribe of plants, in which such matter is 

 deposited, I found a very few grains of alburnum to be 

 sufficient to support 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 propor- 

 tion ; 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.) 



A practical mode of carrying out these views consists in 

 detaching a mature leaf along with the bud which is to 

 propagate. 



The mode of doing this has been thus described by Mr. E.. Markham, 

 the very experienced gaidener at Hewell Grange:— "The Camellia 

 pseoniflora being the strongest growing sort with which I am acquainted, 

 is the one I select for the purpose. In Maich, with a sharp knife, I cut 



