Foreign Notices : — Italy. 69 



by itself show that there exists some difference between seedling plants and 

 those of the same species raised from cuttings or shoots. Further, a seed- 

 ling olive tree never puts forth any suckers ; it nourishes upon the edges 

 of mounds, upon rocks, and even upon the bare calcareous sandstone, be- 

 cause its roots, penetrating amongst the crevices of the rocks, meet with 

 nourishment to insure a vigorous vegetation ; on the other hand, an olive 

 tree raised from cuttings or shoots throws out from its roots a numerous 

 progeny of suckers, which weaken the parent tree, and very often expose 

 it to suffer from aridity, even when planted in a deep soil. 



There is also a difference with regard to the developement of the vital 

 power, or mode of vegetation, between trees raised from seed and those pro- 

 pagated by cuttings. I have selected the olive as an example, because I 

 have it close at hand ; but I have no doubt that the same doctrine would 

 hold good with respect to other trees, and in England as well as Italy. 



Mr. Sweet, in his Botanical Cultivator, first edition, affirms that " seed- 

 lings are not so hardy, nor so easily preserved, as plants raised from cut- 

 tings, and seldom make such good plants." A little afterwards, he adds : — 

 " Plants raised from cuttings taken from flowering plants will flower quite 

 young, which cannot be expected from a seedling." But mark how I shall re- 

 turn the argument : if they flower while yet quite young, it must make them 

 small and weak, because (you have yourself referred to this in Vol. V.) 

 the calling of the generative faculty precociously into action has a tendency 

 to enfeeble the plant, and to prevent the due developement of its physical 

 force : the plants, consequently, become weak ; and, being unable to resist 

 the bad effects of the external action of the atmosphere, are more exposed 

 to disease, and, of course, more likely to die. A stalk of oats or of mig- 

 nonette may live four years, if the flower-stems are cut off as they appear. 

 Your gardeners are aware that it is necessary to prevent the too early 

 flowering and fructification of fruit trees, particularly peach trees, other- 

 wise they are weakened, remain dwarfish, and perish young. Ihjsame 

 thing happens to animals : a male and female silkworm (Phalae s na mori), 

 allowed to copulate, die in thirty-six hours; if kept apart, or the act of 

 generation prevented, the two silkworms would live six days : although 

 provided with organs, they never eat. 



I heard, some time since, that you wished to receive accounts relating 

 to the science of horticulture in Italy. If you should think that I can be 

 of any service to you in this matter, I shall be most happy to be placed on 

 the list of your contributors, and I will send you, by the first opportunity 

 an account of a very beautiful variety of the Pelargonium cordatum, with 

 double flowers, lately obtained from seed by Sig. Giuseppe Manetti, in the 

 imperial and royal gardens near Monza. Other accounts shall also be 

 communicated to you upon the success obtained in the cultivation of the 

 Nelhmbium flavum and N. speciosum, in the open air, in the north of 

 Italy ; and of the naturalisation of the Agave americana on the rocks near 

 the Lake of Como, where it grows spontaneously, and produces fruit 

 within less than sixteen years. I will inform you, in short, of the present 

 state of horticulture in Lombardy, and the immense improvements which 

 it is capable of receiving in different parts of this kingdom. The progress 

 in horticulture, to which your works have so greatly contributed, had 

 encouraged me to undertake the publication of a journal, on the plan of 

 your truly excellent Gardener's Magazine, which I should have called 

 Giornale dei Giardinieri e Registro degli Novanzamenti in Agricoltura (The 

 Gardener's Journal and Register of Agricultural Improvements). But, 

 occupied in employment wholly foreign from any kind of literature, I have 

 been obliged to postpone this undertaking. In the mean time, I have 

 thought it useful to begin publishing a translation of your highly valuable 

 Encyclopaedia of Gardening and Encyclopaedia of Plants ; because, when 

 any improvements are to be effected in any art or science, it is requisite 



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