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Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
| : “ved 
468 (QJunet, “4 
He speeds not in his country’s cause, 
Cr to the senate, or the field 5 
No more the patriot meets applause, 
The hero now the palm must yield. 
Magnanimous of soul! he soars, 
Nor meanly seeks for vulgar fame : 
He speeds not where the cannon roars 5 
_ . Yet, far and wide extends his name! 
To B—rcl—y higher praise is due, 
oe 
the most splendid success, i could not repress- m ? sigh 
* For he preiers a safer strite 5 
a wish, a presumptuous wish, to celebrate, 
jn bardic sort, the hero of modern days. Oh! 
thabd were worthy to strike the ancient harp 
of ‘Cambria; or give breath to Scotia’s 
tuneful bagpipe! Then might I awake to 
swectest sound the silent hiils of Morven; 
and in sublimest strains proclaim throughout 
the earth, to eachsucceeding age, the doughty 
deeds of Fingal’s regenerated race, 
He still supports the scribbling crewy 
And ev’n to ennui lends new life. 
The faitnfui dog, and generous horse, 
In highest faculties excel 5 ; 
The ass in patience, bull in force— 
And B—cl—y tries his talent well ! 
Jamaica. FLACCUS, 
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PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
SS 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
™ AR. Kyicst, whose Jabours in 
NM examining and ascertaining the 
physiology of the vegetable creation are 
weil known to our readers, has lately 
given to this learned society an account 
of the “origin and formation of roots.” 
Former experiments had led him to coa- 
clude, that the buds of trees invariably 
spring from the alburnum, to which they 
are always connected by central vessels 
of greater or less length ; and in the pre- 
sent communication he means to shew, 
that the roots of trees are generated by 
the vessels which pass. from the cotyle- 
dons of the seed and from the leaves, 
through the leaf-staiks and the bark, and 
that they never, under any circunistan- 
ces, spring immediately from the albur- 
num. The radicle in the seed has been 
generally supposed to be analcgous to the 
root of the plant, and to become a per- 
fect root during germination: this opi- 
nion Mr. Knight supposes to be founded 
in’ error.) 4@.A; root,” he: saysy:**my all 
cases with which I am acquainted, 
elongaies only by new parts which are 
successively added to its apex, and 
never, like the stem or branch, by the 
extension of parts previously organized ;” 
ahd it is owing to this diference in the 
mode of growth of the’root, and length- 
ened plumule of germinating seeds, that 
the one must be ever obedient to gra- 
vitation, and point to the centre of the 
earth, while tlie other must take the op- 
posite direction, But ‘the radicle of 
germinating seeds elongates by the ex- 
tension cf parts previously organized ; 
and, in many cases, raises the cotyledons 
out of the mould in which the seed is 
piaced to vegetate.~ The mode of growth 
of the radicle, is therefore simitar to that 
of the. substance which occupies the 
spaces between the buds near the point 
of the succulent annval shoot, and totally 
different from that of the proper rgot of 
thé plant, which comes into existence 
during the germination of the seed, and 
springs from the point of the radicle. 
At this period, neither the radicle nor 
cotyledons contain any alburnum, and 
therefore the first root cannot originate 
frem that substance; but the cortical 
vessels are then filled with sap, and ap- 
parently in full action, and through these 
the sap appears to descend, which gives 
existence to the true root. When fist 
emitted, the root consists only of a cei- 
Jular substance, similar to that of the 
bark of other parts of the future tree, 
and within this the cortical vessels are 
subsequently generated in a circle, in- 
closing within it a small portion of the 
cellular substance, which forms the pith- 
or medulla of the root. ‘The cortical 
vessels soon enter on their office of ge- 
nerating alburnous matter ; and a trans- _ 
verse section of the root then shews the 
alburnum arranged in the form of 
wedges round the medulla, as it is sub- 
sequently deposited on the central ves- 
sels of the succulent annual shoot, and 
on,the surface of the alburnum of the 
stems and branches of older trees. 
Tf a leaf-stalk be deeply wounded, a 
cellular substance, similar to that of the 
bark and young root, is protruded from 
the upper lip of the wound, but never 
from the lower; and the leaf-stalks of 
many plants possess the power of emit. 
ting roots, which power cannot have re- 
sided in the alburnum, for the leaf-stalk _ 
contains none; but wessels, similar to 
those of the bark and radicle, abound in 
it, and apparently convey the returning 
sap; aud from these vessels, or from the 
fiuid which they convey, the roots rate 
te 
