1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



67 



TREES, 



Ornamental and Fruit— Their Cultivation — How they 



Grow — Their Diseases, Enemies, and Uses. 



X OUDER to reply to nu- 

 merous questions in relation 

 to the setting and culture 

 of ornamental and fruit 

 trees, we propose to give 

 between tbis and the plant- 

 ing season, several articles 

 upon the subject, and ad- 

 vert occasionally to some 

 of the wonderful operations 

 in vegetable physiology. 



The study of this branch 

 of science, like that of 

 chcmistr}', presents a field for investigation in 

 which the proudest intellect may find ample 

 scope. If we take the simplest plant and ex- 

 amine it with reference to its anatomical struc- 

 ture, aided by some of the instruments of 

 enlightened skill, we shall find that in all its 

 parts, nature has evinced the same wisdom, 

 as regai'ds the primary principles of vegeta- 

 tion, adaptation and combination, which char- 

 acterize her labors in higher works of her pro- 

 duction. The incomprehensible variety of 

 forms, in which first pi'inciples are made to 

 devflope in the manifestation of perfect 

 wholes — ranging thrfAigh the entire series of 

 qualities, hues, odors and flavors, cannot fail 

 of being a source of the most pure delight to 

 the enlightened mind. 



What, for instance, can be more dissimilar, 

 so far as structure and apparent character are 

 involved, than the tougli, elastic, and well- 

 known substance called India-rubber, and the 

 graimlar, sapid and nutritious product of the 

 sugar cane ? Yet in the laboratory of the 

 analytical chemist, these apparent boundaries 

 are said to vanish almost instantly ; while the 

 article of linen, — the materials of which have 

 been grtjwn upon a forcigu soil, and carried 

 throiigli the processes of rotting, bleaching, 

 i^'c, — is resolvable into a substance identical 

 with both. By the side of the lordly pine, fit 



fur 



"The maai of some great admiral," 



grows tiie deadly hen-ljane, or the fatal night- 

 shade. Yet these plants, so diircrent in out- 

 ward aspect, and internal qualities, have all 

 been nonri>hed by similar alimentary particles, 

 and perfected from the same soil ! 

 The humus, or decayed vegetable or ani- 



mal matter which we apply to apple or pear 

 trees, is first dissolved, then it is absorbed by 

 the rootlets or spongioles of the tree. This 

 fluid thus taken in by ttese roots, is elaborated 

 not simply into one product, but many. We 

 trace it m its progress, and find that it produces 

 under one modification, wood; under another, 

 leaves or bark; under another, jlowers, fruit, 

 and the seeds of fruit. If an apple graft be 

 inserted, that fluid is capable, under the in- 

 fluence of the principles of life, of producing 

 the fruit natural to that graft, or of being 

 elaborated into the fruit of the tree through 

 which it ascends. If a scion of the Siberian 

 crab be inserted on a stock of another variety, 

 the fruit of each will retain its own distinctive 

 family combination and characteristics unim- 

 paired. The wonderful power in nature, bv 

 which this singular immutability is preserved, 

 is concealed from the eye of the physiologist. 

 It is a i^owcr lodged amid the arcana of her 

 most retiring rudiments, and which we are 

 permitted to contemplate only in its results. 



"Far from all vision this profoundly lurks, 

 Through the whole system's utmost doinh diffused." 



There are several kinds of twining plants 

 which ascend their supporters only from left 

 to right. The hop is never known to ascend 

 from right to left ; if inverted, and forced to 

 assume a direction contrary to that ordained 

 by nature, it will sicken, lose its native hardi- 

 hood and vigor, and, most likely, die. 



The roots of all plants are commonly re- 

 garded as the sole media through which they 

 derive their food. "We consequently attach 

 to these organs the highest degree of impor- 

 tance as forming the link of cpmmunication 

 between the earthly and airy portions of the 

 vegetable kingdom. But important as are the 

 ofiices of the roots, they are scarcely more so 

 than thos#of the leaves. The human lungs 

 expose the blood to the air, and thus prepare 

 it for nourishing the system through which it 

 circulates ; and in like manner the sap — which 

 may be regarded as the blood of plants — is 

 exposed and "aired," or aerified by the leaves 

 of vegetables, which are their lungs. 



So far as the economy of nutrition is con- 

 cerned, the leaves of the oak, the ash and the 

 elm, asjjire and spri'ad themselves abroad for 

 the very same puri)ose that the minute spon- 

 gioles j)enneate and dilluse their innumerable 

 roots through the recesses of Hie soil ; both 

 are in quest of food, and the only dilTerencc be- 



