ORIGIN OF THE APPLE TREE. 25 



doomed by nature to continue for a time, and then gradually 

 to decline, till at last the variety is totally lost and soon for- 

 gotten, unless recorded by tradition or in old publications. 



"Reason, with which Providence has most bountifully blest 

 some of our species, has enabled us, when we find a superior 

 variety, to engraft it on a seedling or wilding stock, or to 

 raise plants from layers or cuttings, or even to raise the roots, 

 and thus to multiply our sources of comfort and pleasure. 

 This, however, does not imply that the multiplication of the 

 same variety, for it is no more, should last forever, unless the 

 species will naturally arise from seed. 



"Nature, in her teaching, speaks in very intelligible lan- 

 guage, which language is conveyed by experience and obser- 

 vation. Thus we see that among promiscuous seeds of fruits 

 of the same sort, one or more arise, whose fruits should be 

 found to possess a value far superior to the rest in many dis- 

 tinguishable properties. From experience, also, we have ob- 

 tained the power, by engrafting, of increasing the number of 

 this newly-acquired tree; can change its country, give it to a 

 friend, send it beyond the seas, or fill a kingdom with the 

 fruit, if the natives are disposed so to do. Thus we seem to 

 have a kind of creative power in our own hands. 



"From the attention lately paid to the culture of engrafted 

 fruits, I hope we are now enabled to continue a supposed hap- 

 pily acquired tree, when we can find it, for a much longer 

 duration than if such variety had been left in the state of 

 unassisted nature; perhaps I may say for a duration as long 

 again, or something more. After these sanguine expectations, 

 I may reasonably be asked, to what does all this amount? for 

 here there is no direct permanency, .... and why? The 

 why is very obvious, .... because the kernels within the 

 fruit, which are the seed of the plants for forming the next 

 generation of trees, will not produce their like. I will allow 

 they will do so accidentally, but nothing more can be de- 

 pended on. 



"For example, suppose we take ten kernels or pips of any 

 apple raised on an engrafted stock: sow them, and they will 

 produce ten different varieties, no two of which will be alike; 



