FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 



IN our survey of the culture of fruits let us begin at the be- 

 ginning. Gradual amelioration, and the skilful practice of the 

 cultivator, have so filled our orchards and gardens with good 

 fruits, that it is necessary now to cast a look back at the types 

 from which these delicious products have sprung. 



In the tropical zone, amid the surprising luxuriance of vege- 

 tation of that great natural hothouse, nature offers to man, almost 

 without care, the most refreshing, the most delicious, and the 

 most nutritive fruits. The Plantain and Bananna, excellent 

 either raw or cooked, bearing all the year, and producing upon 

 a rood of ground the sustenance of a family ; the refreshing 

 Guava and Sapodilla ; the nutritious Bread-fruit ; such are the 

 natural fruit trees of those glowing climates. Indolently 

 seated under their shade, and finding a refreshing coolness both 

 from their ever- verdant canopy of leaves, and their juicy fruits, 

 it is not here that we must look for the patient and skilful cul- 

 tivator. 



But, in the temperate climates, nature wears a harsher and 

 sterner aspect. Plains bounded by rocky hills, visited not only 

 by genial warmth and sunshine, but by cold winds and seasons 

 of ice and snow ; these are accompanied by sturdy forests, 

 whose outskirts are sprinkled with crabs and wild cherries, and 

 festooned with the clambering branches of the wild grape. 

 These native fruits, which at first offer so little to the eye, or 

 the palate, are nevertheless the types of our garden varieties. 

 Destined in these climates to a perpetual struggle with nature, 

 it is here that we find man ameliorating and transforming her. 



Transplanted into a warmer aspect, stimulated by a richer 

 soil, reared from selected seeds, carefully pruned, sheltered and 

 watched, by slow degrees the sour and bitter crab expands into 

 a Golden Pippin, the wild pear loses its thorns and becomes a 

 Bergamotte or a Beurre, the Almond is deprived of its bitterness, 

 and the dry and flavourless Peach is at length a tempting and 

 delicious fruit. It is thus only in the face of obstacles, in a 

 climate where nature is not prodigal of perfections, and in the 

 midst of thorns and sloes, that MAN THE GARDENER arises and 

 forces nature to yield to his art. 



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