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is a swarm of young trees from tlie liive of the old; not a migrating 
swarm, but one making additional space in the mother hive. The process 
of extension by grafting, is thus referred to by that wonderful ‘ scholar 
of nature,’ who seems tohave had an intuitive perception of all natural 
truths: 
“You see, we marry 
A gentler scion to the wildest stock, 
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race. This is an art 
W kick does mend nature.” 
It mends nature in this respect, that it transfers the young swarm of buds 
from the old hive to a new. Now, the difference between the perennial 
herbaceous plants, and the perennial ligneous, is this: the former being 
too tender to endure the cold of winter, place their buds, or young off¬ 
spring, in subterraneous winter-cradles, where they remain till the ensu¬ 
ing spring; while the latter, needing no such protection for their vivipar¬ 
ous offspring, leave them exposed upon their branches. The former throw 
off their annual accumulations, while the latter build upon those of the 
preceding year. Herbaceous perennials, then, are constantly renewing 
their life, colonizing their swarms of buds, while the ligneous plants are 
encumbered with the old family group, and obliged to supply the ‘ super¬ 
annuated workers,’ or unproductive branches, with their own mellifluent 
juices. Thus every bud and bulb is a perfect plant of the future year, 
complete in all its parts, and hence, they canuot be a prolongation of life, 
but are an actual renewal of it. 
The fact is, the ‘ wearing-out’ hypothesis, whether applied to species 
or individuals, is, in our judgment, nothing but an ingenious piece of 
exaggeration. It is as vague and unsatisfactory as the theory of trans¬ 
mutation, requiring a metamorphosis of marine into terrestrial vegetation. 
It belongs to that class of natural fictions which delights in mere fable 
and romance. It neither stands upon experience, nor is it supported by 
any well attested facts. For if there is any one fact more completely de¬ 
monstrated than another in natural history, it is the fixity of species; the 
fact, that immensely extended periods of time are necessary to effect spe¬ 
cific changes, even in the slightest particulars, whether in the vegetable 
or animal kingdoms. Species of the Norway fir, and of the yew tree, 
existed long anterior to the deposition of the bituminous coal fields. 
