6 PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES. 



Pears, he succeeded in raising an immense number of new 

 varieties of high excellence. The Beurr Diel, IV Louvain, 

 Frederic of Wurtemberg, &c., are a few of the many well 

 Known sorts which are the result of his unwearied labours. 



The Van Mons theory may be briefly stated as follows : 



All fine fruits are artificial products ; the aim of nature, in a 

 wild state, being only a healthy, vigorous state of the tree, and 

 perfect seeds for continuing the species. It is the object of cul- 

 ture, therefore, to subdue, or enfeeble this excess of vegetation ; 

 to lessen the coarseness of the tree ; to diminish the size of the 

 seeds ; and to refine the quality and increase the size of the 

 flesh or pulp. 



There is always a tendency in our varieties of fruit trees to 

 return by their seeds towards a wild state, 



This tendency is most strongly shown in the seeds borne by 

 old fruit-trees. And " the older the tree is of any cultivated 

 variety of Pear," says Dr. Van Mons, " the nearer will the 

 seedlings, raised from it, approach a wild state, without however 

 ever being able to return to that state/"' 



On the other hand, the seeds of a young fruit tree of a good 

 sort, being itself in the state of amelioration, have the least ten- 

 dency to retrograde, and are the most likely to produce improved 

 sorts. 



Again, there is a certain limit to perfection in fruits. When 

 this point is reached, as in the finest varieties, the next genera- 

 tion will more probably produce bad fruit, than if reared from 

 seeds of an indifferent sort, in the course of amelioration. 

 While, in other words, the seeds of the oldest varieties of good 

 fruit mostly yield inferiour sorts, seeds taken from recent varie- 

 ties of bad fruit, and reproduced uninterruptedly for several gene- 

 rations, will certainly produce good fruit. 



With these premises, Dr. Van Mons begins by gathering his 

 seeds from a young seedling tree, without paying much regard 

 to its quality, except that it must be in a state of variation ; that 

 is to say, a garden variety, and not a wild sort. These he 

 sows in a seedbed or nursery, where he leaves the seedlings 

 until they attain sufficient size to enable him to judge of their 

 character. He then selects those which appear the most pro- 

 mising, plants them a few feet distant in the nursery, and awaits 

 their fruit. Not discouraged at finding most of them of mediocre 

 quality, though differing from the parent, he gathers the first 

 seeds of the most promising and sows them again. The next 

 generation comes more rapidly into bearing than the first, and 

 shows a greater number of promising traits. Gathering imme- 

 diately, and sowing the seeds of this generation, he produces a 

 third, then a fourth, and even a fifth generation, uninterruptedly, 

 from the original sort. Each generation he finds to come more 

 quickly into bearing than the previous one, (the 5th sowing of 



