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XVII. On the Reproduction of Buds. By Thomas Andrew Knight, 
Esq. F.R.S. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, 
K. B. P. R. S . 
Read May 23, 1805. 
MY DEAR SIR, 
Every tree in the ordinary course of its growth generates, in 
each season, those buds which expandin the succeeding spring; 
and the buds thus generated, contain, in many instances, the 
whole of the leaves which appear in the following summer. 
But if these buds be destroyed during the winter or early part 
of the spring, other buds, in many species of trees, are gene- 
rated, which in every respect perform the office of those which 
previously existed, except that they never afford fruit or blos- 
soms. This reproduction of buds has not escaped the notice 
of naturalists ; but it does not appear to have been ascertained 
by them from which, amongst the various substances of the 
tree, the buds derive their origin. 
Du Hamel conceived that reproduced buds sprang from pre- 
organized germs ; but the existence of such germs has not, in 
any instance, been proved, and it is well known that the roots, 
and trunk, and branches, of many species of trees will, under 
proper management, afford buds from every part of their 
surfaces ; and therefore, if this hypothesis be well founded, 
many millions of such germs must be annually generated in 
every large tree ; not one of which in the ordinary course of 
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