354 THEORY 01? VEGETATION. 



leaves are broad and heavy ; and its leaf stalks long; so that 

 if the leaves be once removed, either by the weight of water 

 from the watering pot, the hand of the gardener in pruning, 

 in eradicating weeds, or any other cause, from their proper 

 position, they never regain it; and in consequence a large 

 portion ©f that foliage, which preceded, or was formed at 

 the same period with the blossoms, and which nature in- 

 tended to generate sap to feed the fruit, becomes diseased 

 and sickly, and consequently out of office, before the fruil 

 acquires maturity. 

 Attempt to re- To remedy this defect, I placed my plants at greater dis- 

 rnecly this de- $ ances f r0 m each other than my gardener had previously 

 done, putting a single plant under each light, the glass of 

 which was sis feet long by four wide. The beds were formed 

 of a sufficient depth of rich mould to ensure the vigorous 

 growth of the plant; and the mould was, as usual, covered 

 with brick-tiles, over which the branches were conducted in 

 every direction, so as to present the largest possible width of 

 foliage to the light. Many small hooked pegs, such as the 

 slender branches of the beech, the birch, and hazle, readily 

 afford, had been previously provided ; and by these, which 

 passed into the mould of the bed between the tiles, the 

 branches of the plants were secured from being disturbed 

 from their first position. The leaves were also held erect, 

 and at an equal distance from the glass, and enabled, if 

 slightly moved from their proper position, to regain it. 

 No water I? however, still found, that the leaves sustained great 



thrown on the injury from the weight of the water falling from the watering 

 pot; and I therefore ordered the water to be poured, from 

 a vessel of a proper construction, upon the brick-tiles, be- 

 tween the leaves, without at all touching them; and thus 

 managed, I had the pleasure to see, that the foliage remained 

 erect and healthy. The fruit also grew with very extraor- 

 dinary rapidity, ripened in an unusually short time, and 

 acquired a degree of perfection, which I had never previ- 

 ously seen. 

 Superfluous As soon as a sufficient quantity of fruit (between twenty 



punched off an( * thirty pounds) on each plant is set, I would recom- 

 mend the farther production of foliage to be prevented, by 

 pinching off the lateral shoots as soon as produced, wherever 



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