156 FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



plant into a fine plant, just as he can make a poor 

 animal into a fine animal. Compare a dingo with a 

 Scotch collie, and it will help you to see how much 

 man has done to improve the wild dog. Compare the 

 grass called wild oats with the oats of the farm, and 

 you will see how man can improve a wild plant. It is 

 easier to notice all this in an old country where you 

 can see the wild plants side by side with the garden 

 plants. 



2. From forest to orchard. In parts of Europe 

 you may pass in a few minutes from an autumn wood 

 where the wild plum grows, to an orchard of plum 

 trees ; from the small harsh fruits of the sloe to the 

 large juicy plums of the garden. Similarly, you may 

 pass from the small fruit of the gean — the wild cherry, 

 to the large fruit of a garden cherry-tree. So, also, 

 we may pass from the crab — the wild apple, to the 

 garden apple of a hundred kinds ; and from the small 

 strawberry of the woods to the large berry of the 

 garden. You now know enough of plant-life to guess 

 some of the ways in which these wonders have been 

 wrought. Here are a few hints to help you to think 

 out the matter for yourselves. 



3. How the sloe was changed into the garden- 

 plum. (1) The tree was freed from all rivals — weeds 

 and bushes and trees. (2) By frequent stirring, or 

 by careful mulching,* the earth was kept open to rain 

 and air. (3) Water was given when the rainfall was 



*Wlien the earth about a plant is kept open and moist by means of a 

 litter of straw, or leaves or other waste matter, it is said to be mulched. 

 This is of special importance in Australia where the vegetable matter in 

 the earth may be burned up by the hot sun. Darkness and moderate 

 temperature, too, seem to be necessai'y to the bacteria that make root-food. 

 All this raises questions as to the practice of " bare fallow " in a climate 

 like ours. 



