78 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



refuse to co-ordinate the bud with the seed; and would 

 maintain that the produce of the bud is none other 

 than the result of a process of " continuous growth," 

 a mere extension of the parent tree, and that this tree, 

 sprung originally from a seed, constitutes but a single 

 or an individual plant. The adherents of Mirbel, on 

 the other hand, holding that the woody cyhnder is 

 altogether a sjyecial structure, and formed in situ, 

 would deny to it the character of 7^oots, And taking 

 up this position, they might retort upon me these two 

 questions — fi^^st, Where are the roots of your alleged 

 annual tree-plants ? and, secondly, What is there in 

 confessedly annual and true plants analogous to the 

 woody cylinder of the tree ? 



17. The objections which may be thus or otherwise 

 urged I will not now stop to consider. They will en- 

 gage our attention in future letters, in which also, from 

 the considerations to be therein adduced in answer to 

 those objections, I hope that both the theory itself and 

 the evidence in support of it will come out still more 

 clearly and decisively. And asking of you meanwhile, 

 and till those objections are disposed of, only a provi- 

 sional assent to this branch of the theory, I will, in 

 my next letter, endeavour to prove that the young 

 plants which in spring issue from the buds are strictly 

 annuals — that is to say, that they die the same year, 

 and never afterwards live. — I am, &c. 



