258 Mr. Knight on the Reproduction of Buds. 
nature will come into action : and as nature, amidst all its exu- 
berance, does not abound in useless productions, the opinions 
of this illustrious physiologist are, in this case, probably 
erroneous. 
Other naturalists have supposed the buds, when reproduced, 
to spring from the plexus of vessels which constitutes the 
internal bark ; and this opinion is, I believe, much entertained 
by modern botanists : it nevertheless appears to be unfounded, 
as the facts I shall proceed to state will evince. 
If the fruit-stalks of the sea cale ( crambe maritima ) be cut 
off near the ground in the spring, the medullary substance, 
within that part of the stalk which remains attached to the 
root, decays ; and a cup is thus formed in which water collects 
in the succeeding winter. The sides of this cup consist of a 
woody substance, which in its texture and office, and mode of 
generation, agrees perfectly with the alburnum of trees ; and 
I conceive it to be as perfect alburnum, as the white wood of 
the oak or elm : and from the interior part of this substance, 
within the cup, I have frequently observed new buds to be 
generated in the ensuing spring. It is sufficiently obvious that 
the buds in this case do not spring from the bark ; but it is not 
equally evident that they might not have sprung from some 
remains of the medulla. 
In the autumn of 1802 , 1 discovered that the potatoe pos- 
sessed a similar power of reproducing its buds. Some plants 
of this species had been set, rather late in the preceding spring, 
in very dry ground, where through want of moisture they 
vegetated very feebly ; and the portions of the old roots re- 
mained sound and entire till the succeeding autumn. Being 
then moistened by rain, many small tubers were generated on 
