METHOD OF PRODUCING NEW AND EARLY FRUITS. | gj 



less time; even one generation may work a change of no 

 small importance, if we c«uld make the myrtle bear the cli- 

 mate of INIiddlesex, as well as it does that of Devonshire, or 

 exempt our laurel hedges from the danger of being cut down 

 by severe frosts, it would be an acquisition of no small conse- 

 queiice' to the pleasure of the gentleman, as well as to the 

 profit of the gardener. 



Old as 1 am, I certainly intend this year to commence ex- Myrtle ana 

 periments on the myrtle and the laurel: I trust, therefore, it laurel begua 



•1. . 1 .1 I ^ . • • •. .1 c to be tried, 



will not be thought presumptuous in me to invite those ot my 



brethren of this most useful Society, who are younger than I 

 am, luid who of course will see the effect of more generations 

 than I shall do, to take measures for bringing to the test of ex- 

 periment the theory I have ventured to bring forward; I hope 

 not without some prospect of success. 



The settlement lately made at New Holland gives a large NewH-.lland 

 scope to these experiments; many plants have been brought ^[^^^^^^ °'^°^ 

 thence which endure our climate with very little pro- 

 tection, and some of these arrive at puberty at an early pe- 

 riod ; we have already three from the south point o'' Van 

 Die men's Island, where the climate cannot be wholly without 

 frost; mimosa verticillata, eucalyptus hirsuta and obliqua. 

 The first of these appears to have produced flowers within 

 eight years of its first introduction, but as a settlement is 

 now made very near the spot where the seeds of these shrubsf 

 were collected, we may reasonably hope to receive farther 

 supplies, and, among them, the winterana aromatica, an in- 

 habitant of the inhospitable shore of Terra del Fuego, which 

 Mr. Brown has discovered on the south part of Van Diemen'.'i 

 Island also. 



V. 



Observations on the Method of producing new and early Fruits. 

 By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq: F.R.S. Sfc* 



J- nI ATURE has given to man the means of acquiring those Gifts of naturo 

 tilings which constitute the comforts and luxuries of civilized b"" ""mln ^''^^^'^ 



* Transactions of the Horticultural Society, Part I, p. SO, 



life 



