aiid Fruit of Vegetables^ Sfc. 39 



perienced, acute, and judicious men. Still, however, the mind, 

 which is constantly occupied upon particular details, may not 

 be equally awake to those affinities and connexions in nature, 

 from whence useful general rules may be deduced; for it is by 

 a comprehensive classification of leading facts, that abridge- 

 ments of knowledge are made, and these must form the 

 boundary to unprofitably minute particulars. This gathering 

 together of similar evidence, and the assortment of it into 

 systematic order, are more within the province of the inspector 

 than that of the experimenter. Under those impressions, the 

 following observations are submitted to the Horticultural So- 

 ciety, trusting that scientific or practical men may employ the 

 accruing suggestions so as to enlarge the scope of this branch 

 of useful knowledge. Without presuming on the general series 

 of facts which I have to mention, being free from apparent ex- 

 ceptions, I offer them as an extensive range of coincidences, 

 fi'om whence beneficial inferences may be drawn. There is an 

 obvious connexion between the kind of foliage and the kind of 

 fruit in many of our orchard and garden trees ; and although 

 the full and true uses of the leaves of vegetables are not well 

 understood, yet the subject seems to be open to research, and 

 even now capable of practical applications. The first remark- 

 able coincidence is, between the size of the leaves and the size 

 of the fruit. This may be seen in the contrast between the fi'uit 

 and the leaves of the Magmim-honum plum, and those of the 

 Damascene, the Biga7Teau, and the wild cherry; the Cadillac 

 and the little musk-pear; the yellow Antwerp and the red 

 prickly raspberry; the several varieties of the gooseberry; 

 the common small walnut and the large or double walnut; the 

 large ami small medlar ; the different sj)ecies of cranberries ; 

 the filberd and the hazel nut. And the same indications jirc- 

 vail in herbaceous fruit-bearing plants ; as in the melon and 

 gourd, the strawberry; and among esculent vegetables, as in 

 the pea and bean. 



By an accurate observance of these cliaracteristics, new 

 seedling varieties may be jiartly estimated in an early stage, and 

 the known kinds of fruit trees better distinguished when they 

 are not in bearing. Oilier evident properties in the foliage of 

 vegetiibles, such as their tints of colour, their hardness, thick- 

 ness, and capability of resisting cold, are associated with the 

 qualities of their fruits. Tlie local influences of mountainous 

 situation and of a bleak aspect, M-hich stunt the ioliage, ai- 

 fect both the fruits and the growth of timber in all trees. The 

 ravages of herbivorous insects, and of parasitical lungi, are 

 thus also indirectly niiscliievous to fruits. It is probable, that 

 the great tlillcrenccs in Ihiils, of the same variety, which arise 



I'roni 



