86 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW SYSTEM OF POTTING PLANTS. 
2nd. " Whatever are the laws of the arrangement of branches, with respect to 
each other, the same will be the laws of the arrangement of flowers with respect to 
each other."* 
In adducing the evidence in favour of the principles now stated, it will be seen 
that the formation of flower-buds necessarily depends, as a general rule, upon the 
presence of developed leaf-buds or axillary branches, and that the same laws which 
operate in the production of the one, necessarily act in the production of the other. 
In corroboration of these truths, a practical instance is here given, which will 
clearly illustrate the analogy that exists between the primary formation of a 
leaf-bud or axillary branch, and its ultimate transformation into bloom. 
The engraving represents a plant of Zichya coccinea (formerly Kennedya)^ 
which, in the month of July, 1841, was transferred from a 60-sized pot to one of 
a large 16 — being a heavy shift or removal 
at that advanced season. The plant was 
subjected, with others similarly treated, to 
the temperature of an intermediate house. 
To preserve a regular circulation of moisture, 
a promiscuous middle drainage was used in 
the process of potting, in addition to the 
ordinary mode, and the texture of the soil 
was rendered more open by the disuse of its 
close or binding portion. With appropriate 
attention, its growth was very luxuriant and 
rapid, and would, had its fore-shoots been 
encouraged, have extended over a pyramidal 
trellis of two feet six inches in height. 
Finding the circulation of sap too rapid to 
permit the formation of leaf-buds by axillary 
growth, recourse was had, during its pro- 
gressive growth, to pinching off the terminal 
leaf-buds or fore shoots, above each second 
and third joint, which caused an equal 
distribution of lateral or side branches. 
In thus obtaining an accumulated vi- ^ 
gour, by aiding the development of leaf- , 
buds, which ultimately became matured 
axillary shoots, the season's growth was necessarily limited, covering the circular 
trellis to about twelve inches from the base upwards. The practice of removing 
the terminal growth at stated distances was adopted apart from any recognition, 
or even knowledge, of those principles of horticulture to which it was ultimately 
referred ; and in the following spring of 1842, the plant presented a beautiful 
* Principles of Botany, 287, 288. 
