'S TltLATibi; ON T1IK dTJ'iltf FAMILY. 



hide of human curiosity they sought in cultiva- 

 tion the solution- of this problem. In vain did 

 experiencq disprove this system. They went be- 

 yond our record and remembrance, and hid in 

 the obscurity of antiquity the ignorance of an 

 origin which they were forced to admit must bo 

 sought after the creation. 



t This theory, nevertheless, could not be suffi- 

 ciently satisfactory to explain the origin of some 

 new races which they had seen appear in gar- 

 dens under the eyes of their contemporaries. 



The graft and the slip (cutting) then came to 

 The assistance of cultivators. They commenced 

 by believing that the subject or stock grafted can 

 sometimes influence the grafted bud in modify- 

 ing its juices, and they imagined the existence of 

 extraordinary grafts which, uniting very differ- 

 ent species, seemed destined to produce new rares 

 having the characteristics of both. 



Others attributed these marvellous fruits to 

 some capricious combinations formed by the 

 union of. two buds. Others finally established, 

 in substance, that by the single fact of the graft 

 being repeated several times on the same indi- 

 viduals an improvement in the plant was ob- 

 tained. 



There have been agriculturists who thought 

 themselves able to change or modify the taste of 

 vegetable productions cither by infusing the 

 seed in substances sugared or aromatic, or by the 

 introduction of these substances into the pith of 

 the plant ; and the ill-success of those operations 

 was always attributed to a defect in the manner 

 of proceeding rather than to an insufficiency pf 

 the means employed. 



It is to these different methods that have been 

 attributed all the phenomena of the vegetable 

 system, of which the cause was not understood. 



Thus it has been believed, and is still believed 

 perhaps, that the absence of spines and down be- 

 longing to certain vegetables is only the effect of, 

 the change of climate, of long cultivation, or of 

 the graft. 



In like manner, to the multiplication by slip 

 or by layer, the loss of the pistils of certain 

 plants, and the sterility of certain fruits have 

 been attributed, in which fruits it was believed 

 that, th's method of multiplication nets' to obliter- 

 ate the female parts and to increase the volume 

 of the fruit, The lack of proofs was hidden in 

 the necessity of following those methods during 

 a succession of several generations, and the sys- 

 tem was supported by the example of several 

 sterile plants, such as the Persian lily, the snow- 

 ball, the syringa, and many other ornamental 

 bushes; and on that of the barberry bush, the 

 medlar tree, without seeds, &c. This theory 

 could not, it is true, be extended to annual or bi- 

 ennial plants which the seed produce every y-:ir, 

 and in which we so often see examples of sterile 

 flowers. But they found in their principles a 

 very plausible explanation of sterility, -and they 

 attributed the double and semi-double flowers fo 

 the force of cultivation, imagining that this 

 agent, aided by surrounding substances, occa- 

 sioned the transformation of the fructifying 

 parts into petaK 



Finally, wishing to give an explanation of those 

 monstrosities which the vegetable world con- 

 stantly presents, they regarded them as diseases 

 produced by exterior causes -which they have 



never determined, and they attributed to these 

 unknown causes the variegated coloring of flow- 

 ers and the diversified foliage of trees, together* 

 with the extraordinary forms of those fruits which 

 offer excrescences in the pericarp, or other similar 

 phenomena. All these opinions have reigned for 

 centuries among agriculturists, and it is but re- 

 cently that they have begun to forsake them. It 

 is certainly interesting to discuss them, and im- 

 portant to establish or refute them. This is the 

 task which I have undertaken. I have employed 

 my leisure in examining them with the principles 

 of a severe philosophy, and submit them to the 

 analysis of observation and experience. The 

 first fact which it was necessary to examine waR 

 to know if wild trees existed which the graft 

 or culture has changed into fine varieties. 

 This question holds the solution of a problem of 

 vegetable physiology which appears not to have 

 hitherto occupied the learned, viz. : What is the 

 influence of these agents (ihc graft and cultivfi 

 tion) on vegetables ? 



ART. Ml. Influence of the graft upon vegetable*. 



It must certainly be acknowledged that the 

 graft as well as the cultnite and soil may influence 

 the development of vegetable organs. * A grafted . 

 tree is an individual forced to live upon a stock 

 not its own, but from which it must draw its 

 nourishment, so that only the subject of the 

 graft can be assimilated to the soil. If its or- 

 gans are adapted to furnish the graft all the ali- 

 ment of which it can make use, then the graft, 

 will take on an extraordinary growth, which it; 

 would not have equalled on a less thrifty stock. 

 If the stock which bears it be unable by its or- 

 ganization to supply the food it needs, then will it 

 remain meagre and" spindling. 



These different circumstances, as well as the 

 culture, may produce the phenomena presented 

 by the wild service tree (Sorbna Avcuparia), 

 which, grafted upon the hawthorne, (Mexpyhtx 

 Oxyacantha) grows, it is said, with more than 

 usual rapidity, and attains more than its wonted 

 height and fruitfnlncss. Also that of the wild 

 apple, which, grafted upon the paradise apple, 

 becomes a slender shrub whose branches grow 

 hardly ten feet high. 



These phenomena are due only to the abun- 

 dance or lack of nourishment, and present no 

 other effect than a greater or less development of 

 the different parts of the plant. We remark one 

 thing still more striking in ordinary grafts. 

 Every grafted plant- appears to display, at least 

 for a time, a luxuriance of foliage more marked 

 than the seedling, for instance, ff the graft has 

 been put into an individual of thfa nature, 

 butihis is due to a very simple cause. The seed- 

 ling d -velopa many branches. It gives fruit gen- 

 ernlly once in two or three years, and when it 

 does bear, the tree fa so loaded down that it can 

 only nourish them all with difficulty. From tho 

 time it is grafted several changes" nro effected. 

 Ita plump and bushy top disappears and is re- 

 placed by a single brunch, which has for its own 

 nourishment all the sap which supported that, 

 large quantity f foliage. To be sure the graft 

 may enlarge afterwards, but it never replaces i he 

 quantity of branches whicn crowned the original 

 tree. A grafted tree h always lesi large and 



