116 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



copious supply of water to the earth, its flavour is, in 

 proportion, diminished ; for, in consequence of the 

 rapidity with which the strawberry ripens, and, per- 

 haps, the obstruction of light by its leaves, the excess 

 of aqueous matter taken into the system cannot be 

 decomposed, and formed into those products which 

 give flavour to fruit ; but it must necessarily remain 

 in an unaltered condition. 



It is for the reason just given, that the quantity of 

 water in the soil should be diminished when succu- 

 lent fruit is ripening ; we see this happen in nature, 

 all over the world, and there can be no doubt of its 

 being of great importance. Not only is the quality 

 of such fruit impaired by a wet soil, as has just been 

 shown, but because of its low perspiratory power, the 

 fruit will burst from excess of moisture, as occurs to 

 the plum and grape in wet seasons. The melon, 

 although an apparent exception to this rule, is not 

 really so ; that fruit acquires its highest excellence in 

 countries where its roots are always immersed in water, 

 as in the floating islands of Cashmere, the irrigated 

 fields of Persia, and the springy river-beds of India. 

 But it is to be remembered that the leaves of this 

 plant have an enormous perspiratory power, arising 

 partly from their large surface, and partly from the 

 thinness and consequent permeability of their tissue, 

 so that they require a greater supply of fluid than 

 most others, and, in the next place, the heat and 

 bright light of such countries are capable of decom- 

 posing and altering the fluids of the fruit with a 

 degree of rapidity and force to which we can here 



