METHOD OF PROPAGATING FRUIT TREES. 323 



Whether forest trees might be propagated in Europe in Applicable to 

 the same manner, I have not had experience sufficient to timber trecs > 

 form a judgment: if it should be found practicable, the ad- 

 vantages from it would be great, as the infancy of trees 

 would, by this means, be done away, a period which, from 

 the slowness of their growth, and the accidents to which 

 they are liable, is the most discouraging to planters. 



The adoption of this method will, at all events, be of and natives of 

 great use in multiplying such plants as are natives of warmer warm climates - 

 climates, the seeds of which do not arrive here at sufficient 

 maturity, to render them prolific. 



I have frequently remarked, that such branches of fruit These branch^ 

 trees, as were under the operation of abscission during the bear w * u * 

 time of bearing, were more laden with fruit than any other 

 part of the tree. It appeared to me probable, that this 

 arose from a plethora, or fulness, occasioned by the commu- 

 nication between the trunk and branches through the 

 descending vessels being cut off by the division of the bark, 

 while that by the ligneous circles or ascending vessels, being 

 deeper seated, remains*. The same reasoning accounts stripping fruit 

 for fruit trees producing a greater crop than usual, on being trees of their 

 stripped of their leaves, most of the ascending juices being 

 thrown off by them in perspiration, or expended in their 

 nourishment, for we find that bleeding trees cease to give 

 out their juices after they have put forth their leaves +. 



I have observed, that the tools from a branch under the 

 operation of abscission were uniformly much longer in 

 shooting into the rope when the tree was in leaf, than the 

 contrary ; hence, the spring season appears most proper for 

 performing this operation. 



* The circumstances attending the Chinese method of propa- 

 gating fruit trees appear a strong confirmation of Mr. BorAiefs opi- 

 nion, that plants, as well as animals, have a regular circulation of 

 their fluids. 



f Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, page 119, says, " The 

 natives, when they would force a tree that is backward to produce 

 fruit, strip it of its leaves, by which means the nutritive juices are 

 reserved for that important use, and the blossoms soon show them- 

 selves in abundance." 



Y2 It 



