8 TNDIVIEDUXELITY SECT. 1: 0

the alburnum, as in the vine, vitis; the birch, betula; and the maple, acer; which I fuppofe to become oxygenated in the circulation of the vegetable fetus by the horizontal air-veffels of the bark.

As the feafon advances, the leaf-bud puts forth a plumula, like a feed, which ftimulated by the oxygen of the atmofphere rifes up- wards into leaves to acauire its adapted pabulum, which leaves con- füitute its lungs; it alfo protrudes from its long caudex, which forms the new bark over the old one, a radicle, which ftimulated by moif- ture pafles downwards, aud defcends into the earth to acquire its adapted pabulum; and it thus becomes an adult vegctable being with the power of producing new buds.

The flower-bud under fimilar circumftances puts forth its braétes or floral-leaves, which ferve the office of lungs to the pericarp and calyx; and expands its petals, which ferve the office of lunss to the anthers, and ftigmas, which are the fexual organs of reproduction, and which die and fall off, when the feed is impregnated; and thus, like the leaf-bud, it becomes an adult vegetable being with the power of producing feeds.

8. As the flower-bud produces many feeds during the fummer, fo the leaf-bud produces many budlets during the fummer, as may be feen in the long fhoots of the vine and willow, vitis et falix. In this climate both the buds and feeds are properly biennial vegetables; that 15, they are produced in one fummer, and perifh in the next. Butthe feed differs from the bud in this circumftance, that it drops on the earth, and is thus feparated from its dead parent in the autumn;

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whereas the bud continues to adhere to its dead parent, and grows

over it as 1t advances. T: LL L. L3 Now as the internal pith of a bud appears to contain or produce

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the living principle, like the brain and medulla oblongata, or fpinal

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marrow of animals, we have from hence a certain criterion to diftin- guifh one bud from another, or the parent bud from the numerous budlets,