58if Lindlei/s Guide to the Orchard 



The editor proceeds to consider " upon what principle the 

 flavour of particular fruits may be improved, " and deems all 

 improvements " entirely due to the increased action of the 

 vital functions of leaves." The nature of the stock does not, 

 he argues, at all influence the flavour of the fruit of the scion. 

 " Those who fancy, for instance, that the quince [used as a 

 stock to the pear] communicates some portion of its austerity 

 to the pear, can scarcely have considered the question phy- 

 siologically, or they would have seen that the whole of the 

 food communicated from the alburnum of the quince to that 

 of the pear is in nearly the same state as when it entered the 

 roots of the former. Whatever elaboration it undergoes 

 must necessarily take place in the foliage of the pear ; where, 

 far from the influence of the quince, seci'etions natural to the 

 variety go on with no more interruption than if the quince 

 formed no part of the system of the individual." The fluid 

 or sap collected by the roots, when elaborated in the leaves, 

 is so modified by the combined action of air, light, and 

 evaporation, as to acquire the peculiar character of the final 

 secretions of the individual from which it is formed. " From 

 these secretions," as discharged by the foliage into the 

 system of the plant, " the fruit has the power of attracting 

 such portions as are necessary for its maturation. Hence it 

 follows, that the more we can increase the peculiar secretions 

 of a plant, the higher will become the quality of its fruits,** 

 and vice versa. Pruning and training, and the exposure of 

 branches to the most light in the sunniest aspects, promote 

 the former efi^ect. 



The next subject considered is " the mode of multiplying 

 improved varieties of fruit, so as to continue in the progeny 

 exactly the same qualities as existed in the parent." Seeds 

 will not perpetuate a variety undeviatingly ; buds will. " A 

 plant is really an animated body, composed of infinite multi- 

 tudes of systems of life ; all indeed, united in a whole, but 

 each having an independent existence. When, therefore, 

 any number of these systems of life is removed, those which 

 remau), as well as those which are separated, will, under fit- 

 ting circumstances, continue to perform their natural func- 

 tions as well as if no union between them had ever existed. 

 These systems of life are buds, each having a power of 

 emitting'descending fibres in the form of roots, and also of 

 ascending in the form of stem. The first of these buds is the 

 embryo [in a seed] ; the others are subsequently formed on 

 the stem emitted by the embryo [in the progress of germina- 

 tion]. As these secondary buds develope, their descending 



