VITALITY IN SEEDS AND PLANTS, 



547 



second season, the young twigs and the 

 leaves are as fresh as ever. Such could 

 not be the case, if the trunk and old wood 

 are no more than a " common support" for 

 the " emitted roots" of the " community of 

 plants, which," according to his theory, 

 " uniting together, go down upon it into the 

 earth, and are there put in connection with 

 appropriate food." After the girdling, by 

 which all the " emitted roots" of the so 

 called " commimity of plants" are cut off, 

 and their " connection with appropriate food 

 in the soil," enterely interrupted and taken 

 away, whence does the said " comviunihf 

 obtain its supply for one, two or three years? 

 This is a question for those who advance 

 this theory, and for those who endorse it, to 

 solve and to answer. To me it appears that 

 the supply still continues to be conducted 

 upward to the branches through the trunk ; 

 but, that the tree in the end dies, in con- 

 sequence of the interruption of the returned 

 elaborated sap, which can not now be dif- 

 fused upon the outside of the wood of for- 

 mer years in the roots ; — the growth of 

 which is thus entirely stopped, though they 

 are capable of surviving such stoppage for a 

 time. 



I take it that the whole tree is but one 

 organized body; and that the stem, piih, 

 wood, bnrk, roots, branches, buds and leaves 

 are but parts o( the same whole ; e?idou-ed, 

 nevertheless, toith certain capacities for 

 continuing the species other than by seed 

 alone. 



In like manner, is it not affirming too 

 much for his argument, when he says, that 

 when the stock is once diseased, so also 

 will be all the trees grown from scions or 

 buds taken from it: and that this extends 

 even to the seed, which, deriving its vitality 

 from the parent, necessarily inherits all the 

 infirmities of the parent and transmits them 



to its offspring, and so from offspring to off- 

 spring downward through all derivatives. 

 It can not be: else, it would establish the 

 degeneracy of plants ; and, by analogy, of 

 all living creatures, animal as well as vege- 

 table, the continuation of which is provided 

 for by the same modes. And this degene- 

 racy would, moreover, be progressive ; for, 

 every advance towards it would be fixed and 

 could never be retraced ; and what is there 

 that escapes — what is there that is not af- 

 fected by disease at some period of its exis- 

 tence ? 



Before pursuing this matter further, I 

 will make one or two extracts from the 

 " Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," to 

 which what remains to be said will equally 

 apply. The following is from page 7 : 



" It will be remembered that it is a lead- 

 ing feature in this theory," (the theory of 

 the celebrated Belgian pomologist Van 

 MoNs,) " that, in order to improve the fruit, 

 we must subdue or enfeeble the original 

 coarse luxuriance of the tree. Keeping 

 this in mind, Dr. Van Mons always gathers 

 his fruit before fully ripe, and allows them 

 to rot before planting the seeds, in order to 

 refine or render less wild and harsh the next 

 generation. In transplanting the young 

 seedlings into quarters to bear, he cuts off 

 the tap root, and he annually shortens the 

 leading and side branches, besides planting 

 them only a few feet apart. All this les- 

 sens the vigor of the trees, and produces an 

 impression upon the nature of the seeds 

 which will be produced by their first fruit ; 

 and, in order to continue in full force the 

 progressive variation, he allows his seed- 

 lings to bear on their own roots." 



How any or all of these appliances, 

 brought to bear upon" the production of a 

 given seed, can " produce an impression 

 upon the nature of that seed." so as to 



