252 TEANSACTIONS OF THE HOKTICULTUEAL 



Nature appears to have in view variety in her edifice. It is a 

 marvel with what ease she perfected this end, and also placed it 

 under the control of man. The cells, or polarized angles of matter, 

 in the cambium of the tree, have the power to change the fruit ; so 

 we can convert a worthless tree to one to please eye and taste. 



The combining property, no doubt, is an inherent power exist- 

 ing in each variety of tree, of so arranging the molecules as to form 

 the different flavors, shape and color of fruit; sunlight also entering 

 largely into the mechanical work of perfecting a perfect fruit or 

 order. 



It is oxalic acid, when most perfectly combined, that imparts 

 the finest flavor to our apples. Perhaps in those apples that are so 

 intensely sour that we instinctively revolt against them, there is too 

 great an amount of oxalic acid in their make up. 



Oxalic acid, as met^ with in commerce, is a white acid salt, 

 chemically made with sugar acted upon by nitric acid. Its mole- 

 cules are as follows : H 2, C 2, 4, H 20. So its monads would be 

 2 HO, C 4, 6, 4 HO, with polarized angles of 126 degrees. It is said 

 a drachm will kill an adult in ten minutes, when taken into the 

 stomach ; first, by causing an effort to vomit: second, great pain, 

 prostration and death. This potent and deadly poison, when chem- 

 ically combined with the pulp that goes to make up the solid struc- 

 ture of the apple, can be taken into the stomach with impunity — 

 may be eaten with a keen relish. The peach depends, for its delicious 

 flavor, on prussic acid, or cyanogen, another deadly poison. In the 

 apple, three simple elements, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, appear 

 to be be the important agents to build and give character to our 

 apples. 



What has been said, in this brief manner, will apply to all fruits. 

 It may be asked why we have apples ripening at different seasons. 

 It is because some varieties have their molecules and monads per- 

 •fected with a less number of sunbeams than others. Thus, while 

 the Red Astrachan may have its monads perfected with a million 

 sunbeams, that give energy to every molecule in nature, it would 

 take a hundred million to bring forward to a static state, the Wine 

 Sap, or Minkler. The mechanical structure of the leaf must also 

 have much to do in giving type to the fruit and bringing it for- 

 ward to a state of ripeness. 



It is the vegetable kingdom alone that groups into form the 

 molecules or the invisible substratum. It seems nature, as a builder, 

 had in view a higher form of art than merely to construct a some- 

 thing that had no volitional powers. Every step in nature's art she 

 seems to foreshadow a more noble edifice, a more complex structure. 

 As if nature was reaching out through her mechanical energy to 

 gain an automatic, instructive, intellectual place to display her skill, 

 and have all nature work harmonious together, and whether vege- 

 table or animal, each has its own apparatus to carry forward its own 



