291 THE REGENERATION OF FRUITS. 



readily, and they may be grafted ; they will soon make nice 

 pyramidal trees, and by being removed biennially, they will come 

 into bearing quickly, and not occupy much room : every sort 

 should be labelled with its origin in this way : " From Marie 

 Louise, Nov., 1854," and so on: this labelling gives much 

 interest to the culture of seedling Pears ; for while waiting six or 

 seven years till they bear fruit, their habits will be found very 

 interesting, and in most instances a strong family likeness to 

 their parent may be distinguished in the leaves and shoots of 

 the young trees, varied by now and then a puny, weakly 

 youngster, which will canker and die in three or four years, and 

 then by some one or two trees in ten showing a wide departure 

 from the parental stock, making vigorous and thorny shoots, and 

 growing as much in one year as other members of the family 

 in three, contrary to the views of parents and " pastors and 

 masters" in general; it is these runagates which give the liveliest 

 hopes to the raiser of Pears. I have at this moment several 

 rows of seedling Pears five years from the graft ; they were 

 grafted on old dwarf Pear-trees, and have been lifted and 

 re-planted twice ; this has checked them, so that they are now 

 in a bearing state ; they are all labelled with their origin, and 

 I have made the following remarks. Among some fifteen or 

 twenty trees (labelled " From Ne Plus Meuris"), all remarkable 

 for their resemblance to their parent, are two of extra vigour ; 

 among the same number, from Beurre d'Aremberg, are three 

 thorny vigorous subjects ; and this goes on in the same proportion 

 with Bergamotte d'Esperen, Josephine de Malines, Fondante 

 de Noel, and other seedlings raised from new kinds of Pears. 

 Thus far I have given the most simple method of raising seed- 

 lings by sowing in pots, and not transplanting them till the autumn. 

 Another method is to place the pots in a gentle forcing-house, 

 either in January or February ; the young plants will soon make 

 appearance, and when they have made four leaves in addition to 

 the seed-leaves, they should be raised carefully, with all their 

 fibres, and potted into three-inch pots. As soon as these are full 

 of roots they should be shifted into larger pots, and kept growing 

 rapidly under glass till the beginning of June : they may then be 

 planted out in rich light soil, and the probability is they will be 

 three feet high by the autumn. It remains to be seen whether 

 a seedling Pear can be brought into an earlier fruit-bearing 

 state by being grown under glass all the summer, and gently 

 forced so as to give it a long season of growth. I commenced 



