74 



LETTERS OIN TREES. 



embryo wiilow-trees as we have planted shoots, all of 

 them as independent of the parent tree as they are 

 independent one of another, and each one of them as 

 truly an individual as is the produce of the potato- 

 bud. 



11. The common Strawberry affords a somewhat 

 different, but in principle the like illustration as the 

 potato. The stem of the Strawberry is above-ground, 

 but possesses such length and tenuity as makes it lie 

 sessile or recumbent on the soil. The young plants 

 that come from its buds, finding themselves thus, in 

 contact with the ground, straightway strike down into 

 it, and the stem decaying and disappearing, the con- 

 nection between them and the stem is thus severed, 

 and they grow up as separate and distinct plants. But 

 for this accidental tenuity of its texture (so to speak) 

 the Strawberry stem might grow erect, the roots of 

 the several plants might creep down alongside of it, 

 and so a Strawberry-tree, or at least a shrub like the 

 rasp or the currant, be produced. Analogous to what 

 I have just mentioned as the natural habit of the 

 Strawberry, is an occurrence observed a few years 

 ago by a friend of mine in a Fir-tree. This tree had 

 chanced to be broken across near the butt, and had 

 fallen to the ground, — without, however, being com- 

 pletely severed from the short stump left standing. A 

 small strip of wood and bark still connected them. As 

 the tree thus lay, one of its branches being in direct 



