Functions of Vegetables* fO 3 
In different tribes of plants. They are composed of a 
number of scales, which are closely wrapped upon each 
other, and unfold the embryo plant or branch. To 
enable them to accomplish the purpose for which they 
are destined, many buds are furnished with some addi- 
tional covering, as a coat of wool, or of a gummy or 
resinous secretion. Thus constructed and protected, 
buds are enabled to resist very great degrees of cold ; 
for it is only when the vegetative process has commen- 
ced, when they begin to unfold their leaves, that they 
sustain injury from the sudden changes of a variable 
climate. 
Buds derive their origin from the alburnum , or white 
wood, according to the observations of Mr Knight, 
but perhaps this is liable to certain modifications, if the 
remarks of Schabol, formerly detailed, on the different 
kinds of branches be well founded. In some tribes of 
plants the same buds produce both leaves and flowers, 
but in others the leaves and flowers appear in different 
buds. The bulbs, or as they are, with little propriety, 
denominated roots, of certain tribes of plants, as the 
Hyacinth, the Lily, and the Tulip, are true buds; and 
in some of them, as in the Tulip, the future flower is 
distinctly formed, and only requires the influence of the 
necessary agents, heat, air and moisture, for its com- 
plete evolution. 
Every bud may be considered as a distinct indivi- 
dual performing its functions, when the influence of the 
proper agents is exerted, independent of the parent stem, 
or of any other part of the plant, excepting in the cir- 
cumstance of deriving its nourishment from that source. 
Thus, if the branch of a vine, whose root is exposed to 
the open air, be introduced into a hot-house in the mid- 
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