34 GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



the gooseberry and the currant^ they will not hybridize ; 

 but diiierent varieties of the apple will hybridize with 

 each other, and so with all the rest. 



Blossoming in Alternate Years. — Many varieties of 

 apple, pears, &c., fruits that take the whole season to 

 matm-e, produce flowers in alternate years only, with 

 great regularity. The reason is supposed to be this: 

 The fruit during the bearing year, attracts a large quantity 

 of the ascending sap of the tree in the same way as the 

 leaves do; but instead of returning it to the tree, they 

 consume it themselves. The consequence is, the buds 

 that would have blossomed the following year if they had 

 received their due share of nutriment, fail in attaining 

 the proper condition, and produce only rosettes of leaves. 

 During the unfruitful season, immense quantities of fruit- 

 buds are again brought forward, and the year following, 

 the tree is overloaded; so it proceeds in regular succes- 

 sion. 



This is never experienced in trees regularly j)runed, and 

 may be remedied by thinning out the croj) in bearing 

 years, leaving on but a reasonable amount that will not 

 exhaust the tree. The bearing years have been completely 

 reversed by removing the blossom-buds or fruits on the 

 bearing year. 



Section Y. — ^The Fkuit. 



1st. Cliaracter of the Fruit. — As soon as the ovary is 

 imj)regnated it begins to swell ; the petals, stamens, and 

 other parts of the flower fall ofi", and we then say the fruit 

 is " set?"^ As a fruit bud is but a ti*ansformed leaf-bud, a 

 fruit occupies the same relative connection with the tree 

 as a branch ; it attracts food from the stem and the 

 atmosphere in the same manner, and performs all the 

 same functions, except that it does not, like the leaf. 



