328 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [ciI. IX. 



trefaction, endure in the same individual, often fur 

 centuries of years ; it is the most marked of the 

 triumphs of vittdity; its prime distinction as a 

 creature, capable, for a time, of defying the laws 

 which doom all organic matters to return to the 

 dust from which they were created ; for no sooner 

 does that vitality cease, than the heat, the mois- 

 ture, and the gases which \T.tality compelled to 

 minister to the plant's luxuriance and health, now 

 triumph in their tuni, and serve to destroy that 

 form which they had aided to sustain. 



That heat is necessaiy to putrefaction appears 

 from the fact, that no vegetable matter kept at the 

 freezing temperature of water will decay. Advan- 

 tage of which is taken by the gardener occasionally 

 to preserve his summer fmits and vegetables in the 

 ice-house ; and apples, pears, and grapes are borne 

 unchanged half round the globe in the ice ships 

 which annually visit India from North America. 



That dryness effectually prevents vegetable pu- 

 trefaction we see every day, in the fact, that our 

 furniture does not decay ; and the gardener knows 

 that moisture is fatal to his stores in the fruit- 

 room. 



Putrefaction is also prevented by the exclusion of 

 the atmospheric air, or if it proceeds, it is by very 

 slow degrees. An example of this is familiarly 

 presented in a very effective mode adopted to pre- 



