OF THE GRAMINEiE. i 6ot 



ther the Great Author of life, are unlimited ! 

 On the summits of mountains, and in the frozen 

 regions of the poles, vegetable life is necessarily 

 languid. The parts of fructification, therefore, 

 either are imperfectly formed, or entirely abortive* 

 Were seeds even produced, from the deficiency of 

 light and heat 9 they could scarcely be perfected : 

 but for the evolution of buds, the stronger in- 

 fluence of the sun is not wanted ; and it is highly 

 probable, that the few plants that linger in a half 

 torpid state, in those dreary abodes of almost per^ 

 petiial winter, are reproduced by buds only. 



In the viviparous grasses, I have traced the ori- 

 gin of these buds, which shoot from succulent tu~ 

 bera like those of the stem, terminating the peduncle 

 within the calycine valves. In short, the proper 

 receptacles of these plants, not only as inordinary 

 circumstances, produce the parts of fructification, 

 but when these are, through the influence of cli- 

 mate, rendered abortive, supply their place by an 

 indefinite number of buds or bulbs, in the same 

 manner as the tubera of the stem, with which 

 the Receptacles of these plants have the closest 

 analogy. 



Of the production of bulbs from the recep- 

 tacle, we have several instances, in different ge- 

 nera of the Liliaceee ; but this process is most 

 evident in various species of Allium. In these, 

 not only the common, but the Proper Receptacles 

 of individual florets, are studded with numerous 



