XV111 INTRODUCTION. 



ternal beauty, none of that luscious flavour which the 

 melon, when well cultivated, possesses in so eminent a 

 degree. 



The next subject of consideration is the mode of 

 multiplying improved varieties of fruit, so as to con- 

 tinue in the progeny exactly the same qualities as ex- 

 isted in the parent. Unless we have the power of 

 doing this readily, the advantages of procuring improved 

 races would be very much circumscribed ; and the art 

 of horticulture, in this respect, would be one of the 

 greatest uncertainty. The usual mode of increasing 

 plants, that mode which has been more especially pro- 

 vided by nature, is by seeds ; but, while seeds increase 

 the species without error, the peculiarities of varieties 

 can rarely be perpetuated in the same manner. In 

 order to secure the multiplication of a variety, with all its 

 qualities unaltered, it is necessary that portions should 

 be detached from the original individual, and converted 

 into new individuals, each to undergo a similar dismem- 

 berment, with similar consequences. It happens that 

 while in animals this is impracticable, except in the case 

 of polypes, the system of life in a plant is, of all others, 

 the best adapted to such a purpose. We are accus- 

 tomed to consider individual plants of exactly the same 

 nature as individual animals : this is, however, a vulgar 

 error, which is dissipated by the slightest enquiry 

 into the nature of a plant. A plant is really an ani- 

 mated body, composed of infinite multitudes of systems 

 of life ; all, indeed, united in a whole, but each having 

 an independent existence. When, therefore, any num- 

 ber of these systems of life is removed, those which re- 

 main, as well as those which are separated, will, under 

 fitting circumstances, continue to perform their natural 

 functions as well as if no union between them had ever 

 existed. These systems of life are buds, each having a 

 power of emitting descending fibres in the form of roots, 



