OBTAINING NEW SEEDLING VARIETIES. 53 



transplanting, and those only receive great care and 

 attention wliich are of promising appearance. 



K the leaves of a seedling exhibit an excess of down, 

 or the branches are very thorny, the probabilities are 

 against its proving of sufQcient excellence to warrant 

 its cultivation. To these marks of inferiority, I have 

 added, from my own observation, a peculiar bright, 

 deep green, not easily described, a remarkable vigor 

 of growth, an unusual quantity of limbs, and a thick 

 bushy foliage. The formation of fruit for any other 

 purposes than reproduction, or the mere creation of 

 seeds, is an unnatural process — or, in other words, is 

 produced by artificial means. None of our finest 

 varieties of pears equal seedlings in their prof usen ess 

 of foliage and shoots. In the former, the number of 

 shoots is generally less and the growth much stouter, 

 more stocky and straight. 



When this is the appearance of the young seedling, 

 and the leaf is bright and oleaginous, instead of dull 

 and downy, when the petiole of the leaf is long and 

 clean, when the color of the wood is more inclining 

 to purple or yellow than bright green, and when the 

 spurs and spines which appear are blunt, instead of 

 long, sharp, and thorn-like, we may reasonably con- 

 clude that a new variety of some excellence vsdll be 

 produced. 



If tlic fruit sets well in spring, and continues to grow, 

 although frosts and blasting winds have injured other 

 fruit, it is a sign of hardiness ; and if more than three 

 to six fruits set in a single coronal of flowers, it is a 

 fair signal of great productiveness. More than one 

 season will be necessary to prove its excellence, as 



