348 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



cease by the natural statute of limitation ; according to 

 Van Mons, they only fall from grace. 



There can be no reasonable doubt that Van Mons held 

 the truth, and as little, that Knight's speculations were fal- 

 lacious. Bad cultivation will cause anything to run out; no 

 plant will perfect its tissues or fruit without the soil affords 

 it elementary materials. The so-called exhausted varieties 

 renew their youth when transplanted into soils suitable for 

 them. 



2. Against Van Mons' method it is urged, that it enfee- 

 bles the constitution of plants ; that, enfeehling is the very 

 key of the process. This Mr. Downing urges with emphasis, 

 saying that, " the Belgian method (Van Mons') gives us 

 varieties often impaired in their AeaZ^A in their very origin." 

 It is one thing to restrain the energy of a plant, and an- 

 other to enfeeble it. It may be enfeebled until it becomes 

 unhealthy, but rampant vigor is as really an unhealthy state 

 as the other extreme. A tree refuses fruit and is liable to 

 death from a coarse, open, rank growth, as much as from a 

 languor which suppresses all growth. 



No ; that which we imagine Van Mons to have effected 

 was a smaller, but more compact and fine growth. Nor 

 are we aware that, as a tnatter of experience.^ the Belgian 

 pears prove to be any more tender than the English. 

 Doubtless, there are trees of a delicate and tender habit in 

 the nmnber, but as few, in proportion to the great number 

 originated, as by any other method. 



The two main objections to the plan are the time required., 

 and the utter uncertainty of the results. To imitate the 

 process would require a Van Mons' patience, in which, pro- 

 bably, he was never surpassed, and his enthusiasm, Avhich 

 was extraordinary even for a horticulturist, a race of beings 

 supposed to be anythhig but phlegmatic. 



The uncertainty is such as to prevent any determinate 

 improvement. We get, not what we may wish, but what- 

 ever may happen to come. Nothing that art can do would 



