REJOINDER TO MR. MEARNS. 
351 
were buds or their representatives totally absent? Many herbaceous 
plants, it is true, emit fibres between the nodes of the leaves [stems?]; but 
we should recollect that there exist embryos that lie hidden and dormant 
till called into action by peculiar circumstances. The buds, then, I 
contend stimulate the production of that granular matter which ulti¬ 
mately seems to terminate in perfect radical processes. I am not aware 
of any other plant which demonstrates this theory so clearly as a cut¬ 
ting of the shoot of Erytlirina laur folia placed in a phial of water, and 
that plunged in a bed of'warm tan or leaves. During the course of 
many days, masses or loosely connected portions of parenchymatous 
substance, very much resembling the lightest pith of elder, may be 
observed to collect around the base, and from time to time to detach 
themselves from it; gradually this pithy matter assumes a more com¬ 
pact form, consolidates, lengthens, and finally throws out a perfect 
fibre. Trees and shrubs present phenomena somewhat different from 
those which attend the development of herbaceous species; but all appear 
to be dependent upon some organised germs of life which are excited 
into action, and produce roots capable of absorbing the nutritive matter 
that the decomposition of putrescent substances within their range 
affords. If light be entirely excluded, these germs do not, in ordinary 
cases, rise in the form of shoots; whether, therefore, they actually 
elongate into roots, or simply stimulate the production of fibres, them¬ 
selves vanishing and yielding their substance to the advancing pro¬ 
cesses, is a matter of indifference to our argument; in either case the 
buds are found to be originators of radification. 
Connected with this most important physiological phenomenon is 
the inquiry into facts suggested by Mr. Mearns in page 284; and we 
are happy to be able to adduce the results of an experiment which was 
begun late in the autumn of last year, and continued to the present day 
(August 8th). Two very fine rods of the Black Frontignac —one of 
two- and the other of three- year old wood—were cut from a vine trained 
against a wall; the spurs of the one were pruned back to an eye or two, 
and all the buds and embryos retained ; those of the other were entirely 
cut away—not a shoot, spur, or eye was suffered to remain. The rods 
were each coiled several times round a very large pot, sixteen inches 
deep, and nearly twelve inches across; and then the two pots were 
filled with free, light, turfy loam, and retained under a shed till 
March 4. It is necessary to observe, Jirst , that not a Jibre of a real 
root was attached to either; they were cut off the vine above the soil. 
The one disbudded contained about six feet of the old w 7 ood—the other 
about nine feet; the whole of which wood w r as coiled under the soil, in 
close contact with the side of the pot. Secondly, each rod was fur- 
