224 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 4 



but from the length of time which several of its 

 varieties may be kept. 



Origin and Developement of the Theory of Van 

 Mans. 



Mr. Van Mens, a professor of chemistry at the 

 Univei-sity of Louvain in the Kingdom of Bel- 

 gium, since 1817, was born in Brussels in 1765. 

 To the most precious gifts of nature, by v/hich he 

 was lavored, was added a good education. The 

 study of physic, and chemistry early accustomed 

 him to carefully examine whatever came under his 

 observation, and to seek the cause of every effect 

 which he saw. From the age of fifteen years, 

 his ideas were fixed on tlie natura rerxim, and 

 since that time his meditations, his researches, and 

 his continual experiments, far from producing a 

 change, have but tended to confirm them. A 

 taste for labor which he has never lost, and an ar- 

 dent desire for the acquisition of knowledge, ena- 

 bled him at the age of twenty years, to be re- 

 ceived as a pharmacopalist, to write and speak ail 

 the languages of Europe, and to correspond with 

 the learned men of all nations. 



Although Mr. Van JNlons commenced his po- 

 naolo^ical experiments when a youth, and has not 

 ceased to continue them, his vast capacity was 

 not filled; he studied medicine to extend his know- 

 ledge, wrote a thesis on physiology, a subject 

 which was much agitated at that time, and re- 

 ceived the degree of Doctor, in Paris. He was 

 'born with such strength of mind, that he wrote 

 and now does, on the gravest subjects, m the 

 midst of noise, in the company of persons who 

 talk loudly on frivolous subjects, and takes a part 

 in the conversation without stop])ing his pen. 



Mr. Van Mons enjoyed the reputation of a su- 

 perior man. and the consideration due to his tran- 

 scendent merit, when the revolution of 1788 burst 

 ■forth. Belgium was immediately incorporated 

 with France and Mr. Van Monsvvas chosen a 

 representative of the people. His great perspi- 

 vCacity enabled him to discover the labarynth with- 

 out end, in which public affairs were involved, and 

 he wrote a treatise on political philosophy, in 

 which he stated that the continuance of our dis- 

 sensions was the only way in which that true and 

 solid peace could be found, which we might in vain 

 seek m any other manner. 



It is necessary for me to recal these circum- 

 stances in relation to the youth of Mr. Van Mons, 

 to induce the reader to think, that when a man of 

 such a temperament, establishes a theory on ihe 

 regeneration of fruits, after having practised his 

 experiments during fifty consecutive years, it will 

 be received with much greater confidence, as it 

 quadrates with the course of nature. 



At the age of fifteen Mr. Van Mons sowed, 

 in his flither"s garden, the seeds of perennial flow- 

 ers, roses and other shrubs, with the design of 

 observing the developement, the successive gen- 

 erations and the variations which might thus be 

 produced. To these he soon added seeds and 

 stones of the well known fruits, and remarked that 

 of all his young plants, the pears were those 

 which least rescinbled their parent. He searched 

 the gardens, nurseries, markets and neighboring 

 provinces, to confirm or rectify his first ideas, on 

 the causes of the variation in the flowers and 

 fr-uits. 



At the age of 22 years the basis of his theory 

 was fixed, and he was established as a pharma- 

 copolist. At that time he had a gardener named 

 Meuris, in whom he discovered a disposition for 

 observation; he initiated him into his pcmological 

 views, and in a short time Meuris v^as capable of 

 laboring with success, as well alone as with his 

 master. In their journeys they bought every 

 where, wild and free stocks of fruit trees, which 

 had a favorable appearance. They were so fami- 

 liar whh the characteristics, which the aspect, and 

 the wood furnished, that they could purchase as 

 well in the winter as in the summer. When their 

 explorations were distant they took v.y> the trees, 

 which they obtained even in miusummer, and re- 

 moved them immediately. By means of these 

 acquisitions and their repeated sowings, Mr. Van 

 Mons had, in a short time, 80,000 fruit trees in his 

 nursery, which enabled him to make his experi- 

 ment on a large scale and to more prom[)tly obtain 

 results. 



Here is an example of the rapid conceptions of 

 Mr. Van Mons. At the commencement of the 

 French emigration, the properties of the Rush 

 toxicodendron, being so much extolled in Belgium) 

 a leaf of this plant sold for from 6 to 7 sous at 

 Brussels; Mr. Van Mons planted cuttings in his 

 garden for this use of his phramacy; and going 

 one day to see his young plants, he noticed a 

 gardener who was pruning tlie trees without re- 

 gard to any principle. He immediately hastened 

 to find Mr. Villebon, who was the phuenix of hor-' 

 ticulturists at that time, and asked him what were 

 the rules for pruning fruit trees; the reply was, 

 "you are too old to learn them." '-In two years," 

 replied Mr. Van Mons, "1 will teach you, in a book, 

 which I shall publish." He then began to consult 

 the French, English, Dutch, Russian and Ger- 

 man works, and found that everything was to be 

 verified and rectified. His correspondence has 

 proved to me, that he immediately became, him- 

 selfj the best book to consult, not only on pruning 

 fi'uit trees, but on an infinity of operations in cul- 

 ture. 



His repeated sowings, without interruptron from 

 parent to son, of aniuial flowers, and perennial 

 shrubs which grew and fructified in a short time; 

 his new excursions, which were longer than the 

 preceding, to observe the wild types of our fruit 

 trees, in places where they grew and reproduced 

 in a state of nature; his new generations, which 

 were obtained from wild and free or natural stocks,* 

 as well as from the first sowings in his nursery; 

 and his thousand upon thousand of divers obser- 

 vations collected from every quarter, have enabled 

 Mr. Van Mons to cstablisli a law, which admits 

 of fewer exceptions; this law is, that so long as 

 plants remain in their natural situation, they do 

 not sensibly vary, and their seeds always produce 



* I have observed in Mr. Van Mon's corrospondence 

 with me, tiiat he does not use the word free or natu- 

 ral, but tiiat term with liim is synonymous witli varic- 

 ly. With us a tree is called free or natural, which is 

 produced from the seed of a domesticated fruit, and in 

 (act all trees which have not been f^raftcd: thus we 

 say a free or nalural Rose, Camellia, Majjiioiia or 

 Pear, when they are produced from the seed, cuttino^ 

 or layers; and we ])articularly apply the epithet wild 

 to ]u<ars aud ajipies, whicii f:c'ow naturally in the 

 woods, and whose fruit is not eatable. 



