desirable kind, the gardener has been quick to detect it, 

 and by budding or grafting to give it permanence. And 

 this continual watchfulness, awaiting the chance of 

 betterment by natural variation, has produced the fruit and 

 vegetable sorts approved and kept in being all over the 

 world, so that in orcharding, as in all knowledge and civil- 

 ization, we are to-day the heirs of countless unknown 

 benefactors who have preceded us and handed down to us 

 their best results. It must therefore be constantly kept in 

 mind that the objects of our culture are distinctly artificial 

 products obtained by centuries of selection and variation, 

 and do not exist as wildings, nor can they put up with the 

 conditions sufficient for wildings. As soon as skilled care 

 ceases they cannot escape deterioration, and ultimately 

 dying out. And that indispensable skilled care is orchard- 

 work, a branch of cultivation in the wider sense, and is 

 just as essential as the quick-witted observation which has 

 detected chance improved variations when they do occur, 

 and fixed them for all time. 



The Construction and Function of the Root. 



4. The descending axis which fixes the root in the 

 ground by means of its numerous branches, has a central 

 cylinder of wood-tissue, in which are large vessels, big 

 enough to be recognised easily when cut across with a 

 sharp knife. Eound this is a layer of softer tissue, sheathing 

 it completely. It is convenient to call it the corteX) 

 because the word bark is used in a loose indefinite sense. 

 In a seedling the cortex of the root is extremely delicate, 

 almost transparent, and absorptive of moisture. In a 

 mature tree the enlarged roots, popularly so called, have 

 entirely lost the power of vitally absorbing water from 

 the soil. They collect nothing whatever, their duty being 

 to maintain the stability of the tree and to conduct away 

 upwards through their woody central cylinder the fluid 

 obtained from the soil for the use of the stem and foliage. 



5. Then what part of the root does drink up the fluid 

 food-material from the soil ? Only a portion behind the 

 extreme end of each delicate root-tip. This absorptive 

 region is covered with fine root-hairs forming often a 



