162 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



considered diseased, and are therefore very properly con- 

 demned as unworthy a place in our orchards and gardens ; 

 others appear simply deficient in the production of some 

 one part, as is illustrated by the inferior strength of the 

 woody fibres of some trees, which break easily 'under the 

 weight of their own fruit, and thus destroy the symmetry 

 of the tree and diminish its productiveness. Others have 

 defective foliage, which is attended by the imperfect per- 

 formance of the functions of growth, both in the fruit and 

 in the sustaining woody fibres ; others again produce de- 

 fective blossoms with either a redundancy or deficiency of 

 the parts that are necessary for the production of the 

 seeds needed for the perpetuation of the species. When 

 the parts are deficient, the flowers are called barren or in- 

 fertile. A redundancy or multiplication of parts is seen in 

 double flowers of our gardens, where they are much prized 

 for their beauty, though considered monstrosities by the 

 botanist, and perhaps properly referred to diseased action 

 by the nosologist. . 



It is evident, that very often the conditions of a plant 

 and its products, which we most highly prize, and towards 

 which all our efforts in its culture are directed, are really 

 departures from the natural and healthful status; in other 

 words, what we covet, is really a state of diseased and 

 abnormal action. With the other secondary objects of 

 occupying and ornamenting the barren wastes of the earth 

 with plants, and thus supplying food to hosts of insects, 

 and to the higher animals, nature also has primarily in 

 view, the production of perfect seeds for the perpetuation 

 of their species, by the plants that are profusely scattered 

 over the globe. Man, on the contrary, often rejects the 



