292 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



exploded this doctrine ? If not, it will be apparent that all 

 grafting of scions together, cannot change the quality of 

 fruit, unless the leaves are also amalgamated. Is a red, 

 green, yellow, and white fruit, sweet, sour, or bitter, be put 

 upon the same tree, each will maintain its characteristics ; 

 because, each bud or scion has its own peculiar leaves, from 

 whose laboratory the fruit is sweetened or acidulated and 

 colored with all its hues. To be sure, fruits are aiFected by 

 the stock on which they are put ; but their characteristic 

 elements are not altered, but only pushed along in the same 

 line and made more perfect. 



There is no doubt that trees indulge, occasionally, in rare 

 antics. A sober apple-tree will sometimes let down its dig- 

 nity, in what gardeners call a " sport," e. g. a sweet apple 

 may grow on a sour tree, and vice versd. An apple may 

 on one side be sweet and on the other sour. But, in such 

 cases, the same general law is seen governing yet. We all 

 know that great changes of temperament occur in men. A 

 nervous tempei'ament often becomes abdominal, and a little, 

 wary, fussy, peevish, minikin, becomes a round, plump, rosy, 

 corpulent spot of good nature. Similar changes may occur, 

 through disease, or the peculiarity of the season, or from 

 unknown causes, in the structure of the leaves of a branch, 

 and then the fruit will follow the change of the leaf. 



But the fruit itself digests still further the elaborated sap 

 sent to it from the leaf. If, then, from any hidden causes, 

 the fruit should in part change its structure, the juices 

 elaborated would be altered. If stamens and pistils may 

 change to petals, if petals may change to leaves, if leaves may 

 extend to branches, we know of no reason why the whole 

 or the half of a fruit may not, also, alter its structure ; and 

 with its peculiarity of function, also, of course, the charac- 

 ter of the fruit. While then we are not skeptical of " mon- 

 sters," " marvels," " sports," " singularities," we think we 

 can trace the original law through all the transmuta- 

 tions. 



