SKEDS OF 1’I.ANTS. 
37 
appearing so) the lusiest season of the year ; when Ihe seeds 
are formed, the pollen protruded, the flower bud-engendered ; 
DO time is lost, no part of the plant left idle or dormant. It 
has been mentioned, with astonishment, by many, that the interior of Die 
bud. 
bud should, the moment it opened, be so tender, and yet so 
hardy, when closed, as to sustain itself through the winter in 
all the varieties of climate. But it may well do so ; for it is 
merely the house ; the inhabitant is in a warmer and safer 
place ; while the bud is the habitation only ; preparing, with 
the greatest care, for the entrance of that being which is too 
susceptible to support the winter unguarded. I must not, how- 
ever, be misunderstood ; the leaf bud is, (as' 1 have always 
shewn,) very different from the flower* bud, and formed in the 
interior, as well as in the exterior nearly at the spot where it 
is protruded ; bnt the flower-bud is of a different nature j its 
arising from the line of life is sufficient to announce the deli- 
cacy and importance of its formation, as that* vessel is the 
origin of all the essential and important parts of a plant. 
Though the greatest pains have been taken to prevent the seeds, 
as they pass through the root, from being overpowered by the 
juices of the inner bark, which would probably greatly endan- 
ger and debilitate them ; and that this contrivance is merely 
adding a few rows of wood between the bark and alburnum, 
yet the seeds must, I should suppose, partake of the blood of 
the plant, though saved from immersion in it, which they would 
certainly receive if not protected. ' 
As I have now, as nearly as possible, shewn the first forma- Difference of 
tion of the seeds, I shall next describe the disposition of the Itaf-bud. 
* parts that form the peculiar sort of radicle which contains them j 
for it is only in the larger ones the seeds are protruded ; they 
are never discovered in the threads. There are raiely, there- 
fore, above six or seven of these roots to each tree. The inte- 
rior of this radicle (which should have an appropriate name) 
• Wliat I have always called the line of life, that cylinder which 
sheathes the pith, is known by the French Botanists as “ I’etni tubu- 
laire,” or medalary canal. 
is 
