TO CAUSE FRUITFULNESS. 327 



cy to elongate under the influence of the usual stimulants. 

 Hence a flower bud or flower, is nothing but a contracted 

 branch ; as is proved by the occasional elongation of the 

 axis in flowers that expand during unusually hot damp wea- 

 ther late in the spring, becoming branches, bearing sepals 

 and petals instead of leaves. It is, therefore, easily to be 

 understood why, so long as all the motions in the fluids and 

 secretions of the tree go on rapidly, with vigour, and without 

 interruption, only rudiments of branches (or leaf buds) should 

 be formed ; and why, on the other hand, when the former 

 become languid, and the parts are formed slowly, bodies of a 

 contracted nature, with no disposition to extension, (or flower 

 buds,) should appear. 



It vi^ill be found that the success of the practices above 

 enumerated, to which the gardener has recourse, in order to 

 increase the fertility of his fruit trees, is to be explained by 

 what has just been said. In ringing fruit trees,* a cylinder 

 of bark is cut from the branch, by which means the return of 

 the elaborated juices from the leaves down the bark is cut 

 ofl*, and all that would have been expended below the annu- 

 lar incision is confined to the branch above it. This pro- 

 duces an accumulation of proper juice ; and flower buds, or 

 fertility, are the result. But there is a defect in this prac- 

 tice, to which want of success in many cases is no doubt 

 to be attributed. Although the returning fluid is found to 

 accumulate above the annular incision, yet the ascending 

 sap flows along the albernum into the buds with nearly as 

 much rapidity as ever, so that the accumulation is but im- 

 perfectly produced. On this account the second practice, 

 of bending branches downwards, is found to be attended 

 with more certain consequences. The effect of turning the 

 branches of a tree from their natural position to a pendulous 

 or a horizontal one is, to impede both the ascent and the des- 

 cent of the fluids in a gradual but certain manner. The tissue 

 of which branches are composed is certainly permeable to 

 fluids in every direction ; and there can be no doubt that 

 the vital action of the vessels of a plant is performed both in 

 the natural and in an inverted position. So long as that erect 

 direction of the branches which is natural to them is exactly 

 maintained, the flow of their fluids, being subject to no in- 

 terruptions, will take place in the freest possible manner ; 



* Thia operation should be resorted to with great care, or the branches may 

 be killed ; it appears to me a foolish experiment. Am. Ed. 



