128 
the florist’s journal. 
shoots and foliage; flower-buds develop one or se\eial floweis 
together, and are followed by the fruit. All this is well known 
to practical men ; and they have noticed another fact, which is 
this the leaf-buds are not always resolved into shoots; some 
only present two or three leaves, and remain stationary ; the same 
bud, in the second year, will again remain stunted, and onl} pro¬ 
duce two or three leaves, and be a little elongated outwards ; but 
in the third year, this same bud will certainly become a flower- 
bud, and in the same year be expanded into blossoms, and piobabl} 
yield fruit, which terminates the extension of the fruit-beaiing 
shoot; for all flowers that are terminal stop the further elongation 
of the shoot itself. Lateral flower-buds, as those of the Peach¬ 
tree, do not arrest the lengthening of the shoot that bears them , 
that proceeds year after year in the same direction with which it 
first set out, if permitted. 
A leaf-bud may be aptly enough compared to a seedling tulip , 
its first year’s growth consists of a single leaf; in the next jeai, 
the still tiny bulb may produce two or three broader leaves; 
every following year, up to the fifth or sixth, laigei leaves only 
are produced ; and on the sixth or seventh, besides leaves, comes 
forth a first flower : so the leaf-bud of a tree, it seems, requires 
two or three years’ stationary preparation before flowers seated in 
the centre are developed. But on these same trees we sometimes 
observe, on very luxuriant shoots, perfect flower-buds formed in 
one summer, and particularly at the point of the shoots of both 
Apple and Pear-trees. 
There are other descriptions of buds, especially those of the 
natural order Amentacece , namely, those with male and female 
flowers, which are separate and distinct; the first usually expand¬ 
ing before the second, as is so evident on the Hazel, Poplar, &c. 
These flower-buds are either lateral or terminal, and sometimes both 
are produced from the point of the shoots. Thus it appears that 
the fructiferous organs of every different plant are variously placed 
in the system, and are exhibited at that stage of the growth when 
by the influence of the season they are rendered sufficiently 
mature. 
From the preceding observations it appears, that the fructifica¬ 
tion is not only variously situated on the membranous structure, 
but has visible identity for periods of more or less duration, accord- 
to the constitution of the plants. By the'dissection of bulbs, tubers, 
