CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 135 



passing through the branches and among the flowers, 

 the perspiration against which no sufficient guard is 

 provided by Nature becomes so rapid as to increase the 

 amount of cold considerably, besides abstracting more 

 aqueous matter than a plant can safely part with. It be- 

 ing one of the great objects of training trees to prevent 

 this, it is inconceivable how any one should have recom- 

 mended such devices as those mentioned in ' The Horti- 

 cultural Transactions,' vol. ii., Appendix, p. 8, of training 

 trees upon a horizontal plane ; the only effect of which 

 would be to expose a tree as much as possible to the effect 

 of that radiation which it is the very purpose of traing to 

 guard against." 



This is sufficiently explicit ; indeed, too much so to 

 be taken without consideration. Consider the natural 

 growth of trees. All flat-topped trees have precisely 

 this horizontal plane : so, indeed, the vast majority of 

 vegetable growth inclines more or less to this plane con- 

 tour. Such perpendicular growth as the Lombard y Pop- 

 lar or the' Irish Juniper is exceptional, and not the gen- 

 eral habit of vegetation. Can it be that Nature has made 

 a mistake ? that the habits of plants are not best adapted 

 to their necessities? Prof. Lindley very justly alludes 

 to the effect of " cold winds constantly passing through 



