JLiindlei/s Theory of Horticulture. X57 



p"apers *we sent you on forcing asparagus and all other plants, if 

 you cannot force asparagus without " drawing them up," you 

 deserve hard hitting. He very properly accounts for this by 

 " referring to the want of some short guide to the horticultural 

 application of vegetable physiology." Such a safe guide is now 

 no longer wanting; neither is it filled with any thing which a 

 gardener may not prove for himself; but here the author kindly 

 cautions him not to apply these rules, ♦' except in a limited man- 

 ner, and by way of safe experiment, until he fully understood 

 them." This is exceeding good advice. 



As the work must soon come into universal use among gar- 

 deners, and the patrons of gardening, it is needless to quote from 

 it in this place : let us therefore content ourselves by looking 

 over the different chapters, and see how far our old views corre- 

 .spond with the real correct views of the case. The young 

 reader here must be put in mind of the convenient ^principle to 

 which many of the old gardeners are so much inured; viz. that 

 principles laid down by the finger of science must in many inr 

 stances be thrown away on us, and I fear some of us must die in 

 our obstinacy. The young beginner must rigidly guard against 

 this, and endeavour to prove for himself any doubtful cases 

 which may arise in our progress. Dr. Lindley begins with the 

 seed, and follows it till it complete the circle of its existence, 

 and produces seeds " after its kind." Many kinds of plants do 

 not verify this adage, especially the cultivated varieties of fruit 

 trees. 



" But while it will with certainty become the same species as that in which 

 it originated, it does not possess the power of reproducing any peculiarities 

 which may have existed in its parent. For instance, the seed of a Green Gage 

 plum will grow into a new individual of the plum species, but it will not pro- 

 duce the peculiar variety called the Green Gage. This latter property is con- 

 fined to leaf-buds, and seems to be owing to the seed not being specially 

 organised after the exact plan of the branch on which it grew, but merely 

 possessing the first elements of such an organisation, together with an inva- 

 riable tendency towards a particular kind of developement." 



There is a disposition in all plants to deviate from their ori- 

 ginal types, and the farther they are removed from their original 

 nature, their tendency to this variation increases. This has 

 hitherto bafiled all scientific research ; but the author, as far as 

 science can penetrate, explains all the collateral circumstances 

 connected with every stage of the existence of a plant ; and 



likely that we may have quoted this opinion, and adopted it in some of our 

 works. However, having looked over the Encyc. of Gard., and not been able 

 to find such a passage, we applied to the doctor, who informed us that the 

 sentence does not apply to us, but to a paper by Mr. Sabine, in one of the 

 early volumes of the Horticultural Transactions. Notwithstanding this, we by 

 no means pretend that we are not guilty, or rather that we are not liable to 

 have similar opinions imputed to us. — Cond. 



M 3 



