371 



Selecting and Improving Plants in Culture. 



All the plants in cultivation that are remarkable for their value as 

 culinary vegetables, fruits, or flowers, are more or less removed from 

 their natural state ; and the three principal modes by which this has 

 been effected, are : increasing the supply of nourishment, selection from 

 seedlings or accidental variations, and cross-breeding. It has been 

 well observed that nature " has given to man the means of acquiring 

 those things which constitute the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, 

 though not the things themselves ; it has placed the raw material within 

 his reach, but has left the preparation and improvement of it to his 

 own skill and industry. Every plant and animal adapted to his 

 service is made susceptible of endless changes, and as far as relates 

 to his use, of almost endless improvement. Variation is the constant 

 attendant on cultivation, both in the animal and vegetable world; 

 and in each the offspring are constantly seen, in a greater or less 

 degree, to inherit the character of the parents from which they spring." 

 (Knight's * Physiological Papers,' &c., p. 172.) See also Darwin's 

 4 Improvement of Plants and Animals.' 



Cultivation, then, is the first step in the progress of improving vege- 

 tables. It is almost needless to state that this consists in furnishing a 

 plant with a more favourable soil and climate than it had in a wild 

 state ; supplying food by manure to as great an extent as is consistent 

 with health and vigour ; allowing an ample space for its branches and 

 leaves to expand and expose themselves to the action of the sun and 

 the air; guarding the plant from external injuries, by the peculiar kind 

 of shelter and protection which it may require, according as the object 

 may be the improvement of the entire plant, of its foliage only, of its 

 flowers, or of its fruit. All cultivation is founded on the principle 

 that the constitution and qualities of plants are susceptible of being 

 influenced by the quantity and quality of the food with which they are 

 furnished, and that the constitution and qualities so formed can be 

 communicated to their offspring. The seeds of plants abundantly 

 supplied with food, and growing in a favourable climate, will produce 

 plants of luxuriant foliage, and larger than usual in all their parts ; 

 while the contrary will be the case with seeds produced by plants 

 grown in a meagre soil, and in an unfavourable climate. Seeds pro- 

 duced in a hot climate will produce plants better adapted for that 

 climate than seeds from a climate that is cold, and the contrary ; and 

 hence also the seeds of plants grown in a poor soil and ungenial 

 climate will succeed better in that soil and climate than plants raised 

 from seeds produced under more favourable circumstances. Almost 

 every species of fruit acquires its greatest state of perfection in some 

 peculiar soils and situations, and under some peculiar mode of culture. 

 The selection of a proper soil and situation must therefore be the first 

 object of the improver's pursuit; and nothing should be neglected 

 which can add to the size, or improve the flavour, of the fruit from 

 which it is intended to propagate. The improver, who has to adapt his 

 productions to the cold and unsteady climate of Britain, has still many 



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