V 



VI. 



VAN MONS' THEORY. 



AN MONS was a professor in the university at 

 Louvaine, Belgium, who devoted the greater 

 part of his life to the amelioration of fruits. His 

 nurseries contained, in 1823, no less than 2,000 

 seedlings of merit. He experimented mainly on 

 pears, and succeeded in raising an immense number 

 of varieties of high excellence. His theory, as stated 

 by Downing, is substantially as follows : 



All fine fruits are artificial products; the aim of 

 nature in a wild state being only the production of 

 a healthy and vigorous plant, with perfect seeds 

 for continuing the species. It is the object of 

 culture therefore to subdue or enfeeble this excess 

 of vegetation; to lessen the coarseness of the tree; 

 to diminish the size of the seeds ; and to refine the 

 quality and increase the size of the flesh or pulp. 



There is always a tendency in our varieties of 

 fruit trees to return, when propagated by seed, to 

 the wild state. This tendency is most strongly 

 shown in seedlings raised from old trees. " The 

 older the tree of any cultivated variety of pear," 

 says Yan Mons, "the nearer will the seedlings 



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