[ 228 j 



The decay of the best varieties of fruit-bearing 

 trees which have been distributed through the country 

 by grafts, is a circumstance of great importance. 

 There is no mode of preserving them; and no re- 

 source, except that of raising new varieties by seeds. 



Where a species has been ameliorated by culture, 

 the seeds it affords, other circumstances being similar, 

 produce more vigorous and perfect plants; and in this 

 way the great improvements in the productions of our 

 fields and gardens seem to have been occasioned. 



Wheat in its indigenous state, as a natural pro- 

 duction of the soil, appears to have been a very small 

 grass: and the case is still more remarkable with the 

 apple and the plum. The crab seems to have been the 

 parent of all our apples. And two fruits can scarcely 

 be conceived more different in colour, size, and ap- 

 pearance than the wild plum and the rich magnum 



bonum. 



The seeds of plants exalted by cultivation always 



furnish large and improved varieties; but the flavour, 

 and even the colour of the fruit seems to be a matter 

 of accident. Thus a hundred seeds of the golden 

 pippin will all produce fine large-leaved apple trees, 

 bearing fruit of a considerable size; but the tastes and 

 colours of the apples from each will be different, and 

 none will be the same in kind as those of the pippin 

 itself. Some will be sweet, some sour, some bitter, 

 some mawkish, some aromatic; some yellow, some 

 green, some red, and some streaked: All the apples 

 will, however, be much more perfect than those from 

 the seeds of a crab, which produce trees all of the same 

 kind, and all bearing sour and diminutive fruit. 



