BUDS AND LEAVES. 25 



by the action of elements drawn from the atmospliere and 

 the earth, become elaborated into a perfectly organized 

 embryo. This is taken by the descending sap in the fall 

 and deposited at each node, where it remains until the 

 warmth of spring quickens it into life. To make it plainer, 

 we Avill say that a little egg is placed by the sap into these 

 nests, the scaly buds, and when the sunshine hatches them 

 they push through the scales and come forth as leaves, 

 branches, and flowers. That simple process known to 

 every practical gardener, called budding, goes to confirm 

 this hypothesis relative to the original and independent 

 existence of the bud germ. If, while the bud is yet in its 

 normal condition, disconnected from the medullary pro- 

 cess and the woody fiber, that is, before development com- 

 mences, you take a sharp knife and remove it carefully 

 from the parent stem, you can deposit it as safely and 

 successfully in another, where it will grow and flourish, 

 as the poulterer can remove an egg from one nest to be 

 hatched in another, and under a different hen. 



55. It is evident that if this bud was a development of 

 some other part of the plant, an outgrowth of the medullary 

 process or the woody fiber as some maintain, and conse- 

 quently vitally connected therewith, a removal in its earliest 

 stage would be more fatal to its life and growth than were 

 that operation postponed until higher development should 

 make its power more self-sustaiiiing and independent. But 

 this is not the case ; it is only when the embryo bud lies an 

 independent atom in the scale-bud that it can be removed 

 at all. You understand that this is offered as a mere 

 theoretic speculation, not an established fact. 



56. Buds are arranged at regular intervals along the 

 stem, and the points from which they spring are called 

 nodes; the spaces between, inter nodes ; and the bud 



55* What is evident? When only can a bud be removed ? 

 56. How are buds arranged ? What arc those points called ? What the spaces? 

 Bud on the extremities ? 



