APPENDIX. 70* 7 



this noble fruit is liable to crack badly. ' We predict that many 

 of the Flemish pears originated by Van Mons will become feeble, 

 and the fruit liable to crack, in the neighbourhood of Boston, 

 in a much less time than did the old varieties. 



And this leads us to remark here, that the hardness of any 

 variety depends greatly upon the circumstances of its origin. 

 When a new variety springs up accidentally from a healthy 

 seed in a semi-natural manner, like the Seckel, the Dix, and 

 other native sorts, it will usually prove the hardiest. It is, as it 

 were, an effort of nature to produce a new individual out of the 

 materials in a progressive state, wliich garden culture has af- 

 forded. Cross-bred seedlings one parent being of a hardy 

 nature, and both healthy such as Knight's own seedlings, the 

 Monarch and Dunmore pears are next in hardiness. Lastly, 

 we rank varieties reared by Van Mons' method that of con- 

 tinually repeated reproductions. This, as Van Mons distinctly 

 states, is an enfeebling process without any compensating ele- 

 ment of vigour. Hence it follows, as a matter of course, that 

 seedlings of the fifth or sixth generation, as are some of his 

 varieties, must in their origin be of feeble habit. Van Mons 

 himself was fully aware of this, and therefore resorted to "graft- 

 ing by copulation" in fact, root-grafting well knowing that 

 on common stocks these new varieties would, in light soils, soon 

 become feeble and decayed. It is needless for us to add that 

 hence we consider the Belgian mode of producing new varieties 

 greatly inferior to the English one, since it gives us varieties 

 often impaired in health in their very origin. 



If any further proof of this is desired, we think it is easily 

 found by comparing the robust vigour and longevity of many 

 native pear trees to be found in the United States some of them 

 80 or 100 years old, and still producing large crops of fruit 

 with the delicate trees of several new varieties now in our gar- 

 dens from Europe. These varieties are delicate, not only with 

 respect to their constitutional vigour, but they are also more 

 susceptible to injury from the severity of our winter's cold and 

 summer's sun. 



There are great advantages, undoubtedly, for soils naturally 

 unfavourable, and for small gardens, in grafting the pear upon 

 quince stocks ; yet, as it diminishes the vigour of the tree, it is 

 not impossible that continued propagation from dwarf trees 

 may somewhat lessen the vital powers and the longevity of a 

 given variety. 



The decay of varieties of the Apricot, or Peach, much shorter 

 lived trees by nature, we seldom or never hear of. Varieties of 

 both are now in cultivation, and in the most perfect vi- 

 gour, of 200 years' duration. This, probably, is owing to the 

 more natural treatment these trees receive generally. Varie- 

 ties of the vine are said never to degenerate, and this is per- 



