394 
On Pruning Forest Trees. 
noticed the course of the bud, as being traceable from the medullary 
sheath (the pith) to the surface on which it appears, by a pale stream 
of parenchymatous (pithy) matter, traversing each concentric ligneous 
layer. But this track, he observes, only marks the advancement 
of the vital speck or germ, to the surface of each annual belt, on the 
surface of which it is seated; with the life of which, indeed, its vitality 
is intimately connected: destroy this, and the germ becomes extinct: 
augment its \'ital energy, and the germ is unfolded into a perfect bud 
and branch; but leave things as they are, and the germ will advance 
to the surface of the next year’s belt of wood; and so on progres¬ 
sively, until it be ultimately unfolded, or perish with the destruction 
of the tree.”—See pages 19 and 20, of the treatise, with illustrative 
plates. 
I also, have noticed the track of whitish matter, on making the sec¬ 
tion of a two-year-old branch of the x\sh, at the point of inter-section 
of another smaller branch, and at the seat of a protruded bud. 
That able physiologist and close observer, Mr. Knight, in conse¬ 
quence of a series of experiments upon Sea-kale, {Crdmhe maritima^ 
and the tuber of the potatoe, among herbaceous plants; and upon the 
Apple, Pear, and Plum, among trees; concluded, that the alburnum 
(or newly formed stratum of woody matter, immediately adjoining the 
bark) has the power of organizing and re-generating buds. 
Whatever may be the origin of buds,—whether they exist at the 
moment of the first developement of the plumelet from the seed, and 
remain to be protruded at different periods, more or less remote; or 
whether the vital energy of the plant is exerted in a continuous for¬ 
mation of new buds, from the laboration of the nutritive juices; certain 
it is, that each bud is a vital, or at least an essential organ, connected 
with the energy and progressive improvement of the tree. And there¬ 
fore we must, I conceive, admit, that although by pruning we cause 
the protrusion of fresh buds and branches, the tendency of the opera¬ 
tion is to produce debility, and not strength. Fresh buds, fresh 
verdure appear, but the appearances are deceptive; for, in order to 
supply the places of those members which have been removed by the 
knife, the vital energies of the tree are taxed, and put to the expense 
of unnecessary efforts, in order to bring about the premature develope¬ 
ment of those buds, which would, at a more advanced period, be 
proti’uded by the due operation of the great natural agents. 
I perceive. Sirs, that I have exceeded my limits: with much regret, 
therefore, I must defer my further remarks upon the nature and pro¬ 
gress of the sap, tlie vital functions of the leaves, and the electro¬ 
chemical agency of the sun and atmosphere in the laboration of the 
circulating juices. But if this paper be favourably received, and 
