gg STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



plants were in some way hunted from the soil, and convej'ed to 

 their resting places by the sap, which was known to circulate 

 through living vegetable organisms. Although no sugar could be 

 detected in any soil by the most persistent scrutiny, yet it was 

 supposed that sugar, and its associated acid and other plant con- 

 stituents, were present, and ready for transportation by the ascend- 

 ing sap. We are disposed to smile at this error of our fathers, but 

 we should remember that, in accounting for natural phenomena, or 

 seeking for a reason for things, the easiest and shortest path is the 

 one usually followed. This remains true until we are guided by 

 facts learned from accurate observation and experiment, or until 

 science becomes sufficiently robust to act as an unerring guide. 



Science, in our epoch, is capable of explaining man}' of the 

 former mysteries of plant movements and plant production, and 

 we now know the source of the sweet principle of fruits and plants, 

 — we know that the soil has no direct agency in supplying sugar to 

 any organic structure. 



Sugar is a verj' remarkable substance, and its investigation opens 

 to view surprises and paradoxes not afforded by any other agent 

 in nature. It is highl}' complex in its organization, having a high 

 atomic constitution, and yet it is the simplest of all compounds 

 when considered in regard to the nature of the elements of which 

 it is composed. 



In studying the sweet principle of plants, we soon discover that 

 the}' possess the capability of elaborating more than one variet}' of 

 sugar in their structures, and that there is a curious blending of 

 several forms in the ripened fruits which corae upon our tables. We 

 discover, also, that each plant has the power of manufacturing a 

 special variet}', or a combination of varieties, and that this law of 

 their constitution cannot be changed by man. 



In beet roots, in the stems and trunks of the sugar maple tree, 

 the sycamore, the palm, in sugar canes, in the sorghum plant, in 

 the stalks of maize, in grasses, we have one kind of sugar, called 

 sucrose, which is the sweetest variety ; in grapes we have another 

 distinct variety, called dextrose or glucose; in apples and other 

 fruits we have still another, called fructose or levulose. In melons 

 we have a sweet which is nearly pure sucrose, or cane sugar. We 

 learn from this examination not only that sugars differ widely, but 

 that, for wise and doubtless beneficent reasons, the Supreme Intel- 

 ligence has not permitted all fruits and plants to be sweetened 



