THINNING. 265 



The study of morphology which gives us such an in- 

 sight into the mechanism of the plant, and which leads us 

 into such mazes of wonder and admiration, cannot now 

 detain us further than to be named and referred to as the 

 explanation of the formation of what we call fruit or blos- 

 ,som buds. The reader is referred to the full explanations 

 of this subject by the famous philosopher and poet, Goethe ; 

 or, if more conveniently accessible, to his English transla- 

 k tors, or to the appropriate chapters in any of the modern 

 text books of botany. 



When the plant is young, its chief object is to grow; it 

 must acquire size and development, to enable it to produce 

 and bear up the enormous crop it is destined one day to 

 yield. Hence in the early years of a tree there is none, or 

 very little of this transformation of the buds, which are 

 all of the pointed character, and when excited into 

 growth, they all produce shoots and leaves only, which re- 

 sult in the formation of an increase of the woody fabric, 

 that we call the tree. This period of adolescence is longer 

 or shorter in different species and varieties in some it may 

 extend through many years. Thus, the American Aloe is 

 called the Century Plant, from the common belief that it 

 must survive a hundred summers before this stage of ma- 

 turity and blossoming is reached ; whereas this plant only 

 needs a period of thirty years or less to produce its blos- 

 soms, when it is favorably situated as to soil and climate. 



There is, it is probable, a definite period at which each 

 kind of plant will have these changes occur in the buds, 

 when they will begin to flower and to produce fruit. This 

 period may be accelerated or retarded, to some extent, by 

 human means ; for we have observed, that whatever pro- 

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