MOT 



MOT 



decayed Mulberry-trees, to treat them in the 

 same manner; but those which are very much 

 decayed should be headed down ; this will throw 

 them into a healthy bearing state, and in two or 

 three years they will, he asserts, produce plenty 

 of fine fruit." 



And as old trees of this sort bear better and 

 have finer fruit than young ones, it is of impor- 

 tance, he thinks, to restore them. 



The fifth and sixth sorts are tender, requiring 

 the protection of the bark stove. 



The first sort is raised for the fruit ; but the 

 others chiefly for the purpose of variety and or- 

 nament. The third is used for having the bark 

 made into paper in some countries. 



MOSSING OF FRUIT-TREES. This is a 

 disease arising from the Moss Plant establish- 

 ing itself upon such fruit-trees as are in an un- 

 healthy state of growth or which are planted so 

 close together as to prevent a due circulation 

 of air ami dryness. The trees, by this means, are 

 not only injured, from the plant fixing itself upon 

 them, and restricting their growth, but probably 

 by the quantity of moisture that it attracts, and 

 the dampness that is produced in that way. 



For the prevention and removal of this state 

 of fruit-trees, Mr. Forsyth advises the washing 

 them with a mixture of •J'resh cow-dung, urine 

 and soap-suds, as by this means the moss is not 

 only prevented from growing on the trunks and 

 branches, but the ova of insects are destroyed, 

 the trees nourished, and the bark kept in a fine 

 healthy state. It may also be removed by scrap- 

 ing the trees. 



Apple-, Pear- , and Plum-trees are very liable to 

 be affected in this way. 



MOTION OF PLANTS, the course or direc- 

 tion of growth in different parts of them. 



In the roots and stems the direction is totally 

 opposite, the former either running directly 

 downward into the ground, or horizontally un- 

 der the surface; while the latter direct their 

 motion towards the air and light of the sun, 

 mostly in an upright manner, but sometimes 

 horizontally along the surface of the ground. 

 The causes which operate in promoting these are 

 the quest of nourishment in the root, and the 

 influence of the air and light of the sun 

 on the stem ; for when any number of plants 

 growing in (lots is placed in a room, which only 

 admits a small portion of light at one place, the 

 stems all incline towards that side ; in close dark 

 thickets, the young trees always lean to the part 

 where the most light penetrates ; and the new 

 shoots of espalier or wall-trees detach them- 

 selves from those supports, in quest of free 

 air and light. 



It seems that the force of motion is create r in 



the roots than in the stems ; the roots, without 

 ever once going out of their way, pierce the 

 hardest soils, penetrate into walls, which they 

 overturn, and even into rocks, which they split; 

 whereas the stems and branches surmount ob- 

 stacles by leaving their natural direction, and 

 over-topping them. 



Though the natural tendency of most stems 

 or trunkd is to ascend, some by their weakness, 

 or natural growth, descend : and occasionally by 

 means of roots breaking out all along the stems 

 and branches, as in the Strawberry, Penny-royal, 

 and many other creeping plants, the stems are, by 

 the roots striking into the earth, tethered as it 

 v^ere to the ground, and only their extremities 

 have the powerof directing their course upwards. 



The leaves and flowers of plants also direct 

 their course towards the air, and light of the sun; 

 the leaves always turning their upper surface 

 outward to the air and light ; which is verv ob- 

 vious in Wall-trees, and when a branch is over- 

 turned, so that the leaves are inverted, they na- 

 turally direct their surfaces again gradually up- 

 wards to the light and air, though this often 

 takes them several days' growth. Some flowers 

 are also supposed to have a particular daily 

 motion, so as to present their surfaces directly 

 to the sun, and follow the diurnal course of it, 

 as the Sun-flower, and most of the compound 

 flowers ; in all of which the disk or surface is 

 believed to look towards the east in the morninn^, 

 the south at noon, and the west in the evening. 



And during the heat of the sun, the pinnated 

 or winged leaves, particularly of the papiliona- 

 ceous tribe of plants, rise vertically upward; the 

 opposite lobes or folioles, which compose these 

 leaves, rise so as to be generally applied close 

 together by their upper surfaces; but in that 

 state of the atmosphere which generally precedes 

 a storm, or during a close, moist, cloudy air, 

 the lobes of the same sort of leaves extend them- 

 selves commonly along the foot-stalk; and 

 after sun-set incline still lower, and hang di- 

 rectly down under the foot-stalk, being applied 

 close together like the leaves of a book, by their 

 lower surfaces ; a state which by Linnaeus is 

 called the sleep of ])lants. 



The simple leaves of many plants, when their 

 surface is exposed to an ardent sun, also become 

 concave abo'^e, but gradually recover as the 

 heat declines. But, of all the motions of the 

 leaves of plants, none is so sudden and rapid as 

 those of the Sensitive and Humble kinds. 



There is another kind of motion in plants; 

 that is, elasticity; which is resident particularly 

 in some sorts of seed-vessels, such as the Yel- 

 low Balsaminc, and Spurting Cucumber, &c. 

 in which their fruits, when arrived at maturity. 



