of the Permanence of Varieties. 195 
pect of success was tried by myself and others to propagate 
the old varieties of the apple and pear which formerly consti- 
tuted the orchards of Herefordshire, without a single healthy 
or efficient tree having been obtained; and, I believe, all 
attempts to propagate these varieties have, during some years, 
wholly ceased to be made.” 
To this it was replied, in that and the next generation, that 
cultivated vines have been transmitted by perpetual division 
from the time of the Romans, and that several of the sorts, still 
prized and prolific, are well identified, among them the ancient 
Grecula (considered to be the modern Corinth or currant grape), 
which has immemorially been seedless, that the old nonpareil 
apple was known in the time of Queen Elizabeth, that the 
white beurré pears of France have been propagated from 
the earliest times, and that golden pippins, St.-Michael 
pears, and others said to have run out were still to be had in 
good condition. 
Coming down to the present year, a glance through the pro- 
ceedings of pomological societies, and the debates of farmers’ 
clubs, brings out the same difference of opinion. The testimony 
is nearly equally divided. Perhaps the larger number speak of 
the deterioration and failure of particular old sorts; but when 
the question turns on ‘‘ wearing out,” the positive evidence of 
vigorous trees and sound fruits is most telling. A little positive 
testimony outweighs a good deal of negative. This cannot 
readily be explained away, while the failures may be, by ex- 
haustion of soil, incoming of disease, or alteration of climate 
or circumstances. On the other hand, it may be urged that, 
if a variety of this sort is fated to become decrepit and die out, 
it is not bound to die out all at once and everywhere at the 
same time. It would be expected first to give way wherever 
it is weakest, from whatever cause. This consideration has 
an important bearing upon the final question, Are old varieties 
of this kind on the way to die out on account of their age or 
any inherent limit of vitality ? 
Here, again, Mr. Knight took an extreme view. In his 
essay in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions,’ published in the year 
1810, he propounded the theory, not merely of a natural limit 
to varieties from grafts and cuttings, but even that they 
would not survive the natural term of the life of the seedling 
trees from which they were originally taken. Whatever may 
have been his view of the natural term of the life of a tree, 
and of a cutting being merely a part of the individual that 
produced it, there is no doubt that he laid himself open to the 
effective replies which were made from all sides at the time, 
