OF TKAINING. 263 



680, by means of which standard Eose trees are con- 

 verted into masses of flowers. The figure given in 

 that work, and here reproduced {fig. 33), represents 

 the variety called the Bizarre de la Chine, " which 

 flowered most abundantly to the ends of its branches, 

 and was truly a splendid object." 



The last object of training to which it is necessary 

 to advert is that of improving the quality of fruit, by 

 compelling the sap to travel to a very considerable dis- 

 tance. The earliest notice of this, with which I am 

 acquainted, is the following by Mr. Williams of 

 Pitmaston. 



" Within a few years past," he says in 1818, " I 

 have gradually trained bearing branches of a small 

 Black Cluster Grape, to the distance of near fifty feet 

 from the root, and I find the branches every year 

 grow larger, and ripen earlier as the shoots continue 

 to advance. According to Mr. Knight's theory of 

 the circulation of the sap, the ascending sap must 

 necessarily become enriched by the nutritious par- 

 ticles it meets with in its progress through the stems of 

 the alburnum ; the wood at the top of tall trees, there- 

 fore, becomes short-jointed and full of blossom buds, 

 and the fruit there situated attains its greatest perfec- 

 tion. Hence we find Pine and Fir trees loaded with 

 the finest cones on the top boughs ; the largest acorns 

 grow on the terminal branches of the Oak, and the 

 finest mast on the high boughs of the Beech and Chest- 

 nut; so likewise apples, pears, cherries, &c, are al- 

 ways best flavoured from the top of the tree." {Hort. 

 'IVans., iii. 250, 251.) The merit of the Fontainblean 



