VOL. LXXXV.] rHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 57 1 



while the latter assumed the appearance of stocks just raised from seeds, were 

 covered with thorns, and have not yet produced any blossoms. 



The extremities of those branches, which produce seeds in every tree, pro- 

 bably show the first indication of decay ; and we frequently see, particularly in 

 the oak, young branches produced from the trunk, when the ends of the old 

 ones have long been dead. The same tree when cropped will produce an almost 

 eternal succession of branches. The durability of the apple and pear, I have 

 long suspected to be different in different varieties, but that none of either would 

 vegetate with vigour much, if at all, beyond the life of the parent stock, pro- 

 vided that died from mere old age. I am confirmed in this opinion by the books 

 on this subject: of the apples mentioned and described by Parkinson, the names 

 only remain, and those since applied to other kinds now also worn out; but many 

 of Evelyn's are still well known, particularly the red streak. This apple, he 

 informs us, was raised from seed by Lord Scudamore in the beginning of the 

 last century. We have many trees of it, but they appear to have been in a state 

 of decay during the last 40 years. Some others mentioned by him are in a much 

 better state of vegetation ; but they have all ceased to deserve the attention of the 

 planter. The durability of the pear is probably something more than double 

 that of the apple. 



It has been remarked by Evelyn, and by almost every writer since, on the 

 subject of planting, that the growth of plants raised from seeds was more rapid, 

 and that they produced better trees than those obtained from layers or cuttings. 

 This seems to point out some kind of decay attending the latter modes of propaga- 

 tion, though the custom in the public nurseries of taking layers from stools, 

 trees cropped annually close to the ground, probably retards its effects, as each 

 plant rises immediately from the root of the parent stock. 



Were a tree capable of affording an eternal succession of healthy plants from 

 its roots, I think our woods must have been wholly over-run with those species 

 of trees which propagate in this manner, as those scions from the roots always 

 grow in the first 3 or 4 years with much greater rapidity than seedling plants. 

 An aspin is seldom seen without 1000 suckers rising from its roots; yet this tree 

 is thinly, though universally, scattered over the woodlands of this country. I 

 can speak from experience, that the luxuriance and excessive disposition to ex- 

 tend itself in another plant, which propagates itself from the root, the raspberry, 

 decline in 20 years from the seed. The common elm being always propagated 

 from scions or layers, and growing with luxuriance, seems to form an exception ; 

 but as some varieties grow much better than others, it appears not improbable 

 that the most healthy are those which have last been obtained from seed. The 

 different degrees of health in our peach and nectarine trees may, I think, arise 

 from the same source. The oak is much more long-lived in the north of Europe 



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