416 THE AGE OF PRODUCTIVENESS. 



injurious, and no change in the character or merits 

 of the future fruit can be effected during this period, 

 either by manure or culture. The young plant 

 should be allowed to extend its branches in every 

 direction in which it does not injuriously interfere 

 with another, and the soil should be sufficiently rich 

 to promote a moderate degree of growth, without 

 stimulating the plant to preternatural exertion, 

 which always induces disease. The soil of an old 

 garden is peculiarly destructive. The periods which 

 different kinds of fruit trees require to attain the 

 age of puberty are very varied. The pear requires 

 from twelve to eighteen years ; the apple from five 

 to twelve ; the plum and cherry four or five years ; 

 the vine three or four ; and the raspberry two. 

 The strawberry, if its seeds be sown early, affords a 

 crop the succeeding year. 



" A seed, exclusive of its seed-coats, consists of one 

 or more cotyledons, a plumule or bud, and the 

 caudex or stem of the future plant, which has gen- 

 erally, though erroneously, been called its radical. 

 In these organs, but principally in the cotyledons, is 

 deposited as much of the concrete sup of the parent 

 plant as is sufficient to feed its offspring till that has 

 attached itself to the soil and become capable of 

 absorbing and assimilating new matter. 



"The plumule differs from the bud of the parent 

 plant in possessing a new and independent life, and 

 thence in assuming in its subsequent growth dif- 



