304 



HAEDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



Americans in tlie United States so readily pro- 

 cure superior fruits, and at so little trouble : this 

 he attributes to the ignorance or neglect of 

 grafting shown by the earlier settlers, who, in'the 

 anxiety to establish a country, neglected to per- 

 petuate their fruit trees by grafting or budding, 

 and had at last recourse to rearing their trees 

 from seeds. From the fruit trees imported into 

 America now about three hundred years ago, 

 seedlings have been originated both by accident 

 and design ; and these, having undergone the 

 ameliorating influence of successive generations, 

 have now arrived at that period of their exist- 

 ence which has developed their true and useful 

 character. Climate has, no doubt, much to do 

 in regard to the superiority of American apples; 

 but the breaking up of new lands, as conjectured 

 by M. Poiteau, has little to do with this, or with 

 the production of new or improved fruits ; for 

 although such circumstances may improve the 

 quality of the fruit, it cannot alter its physical 

 nature or constitution. 



Most of our present esteemed fruits were 

 brought by slow degrees to the West from the • 

 East, and principally from Asia and Egypt. 

 Gibbon, in " History of the Decline and Fall of 

 the Roman Empire," vol. i. p. 62, remarks : " In 

 the more remote ages of antiquity, the world 

 was unequally divided. The East was in the 

 immemorial possession of arts and luxury, whilst 

 the West was inhabited by rude and warlike 

 barbarians, who either disdained horticulture, 

 or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the 

 protection of an established government, the pro- 

 ductions of happier climates, and the industry 

 of more civilised nations, were gradually intro- 

 duced into the western countries of Europe ; and 

 the natives were encouraged, by an open and pro- 

 fitable commerce, to multiply the former as well 

 as to improve the latter. Almost aU the flowers, 

 the herbs, and the fruits that grow in our Euro- 

 pean gardens are of foreign extraction, which, 

 in many cases, is betrayed even by their names. 

 The apple was a native of Italy ; and when the 

 Romans had tasted the richer flavour of the 

 apricot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, 

 and the orange, they contented themselves with 

 applying to eJI their new fruit the common de- 

 nomination of apple, discriminating them from 

 each other by the additional epithet of their 

 country." This progress, in a westerly direction, 

 is going on at the present day ; and the fruits of 

 the East are sought for with considerable avi- 

 dity by the tribes inhabiting the western shores 

 of America. Indeed, as we have elsewhere stated, 

 no very long time has elapsed since neither the 

 grape, the apple, nor the pear existed in that 

 great and progressing continent. 



Improved -oarieties of fruits accidentally or 

 scientifically produced. — Accident no doubt gave 

 rise to the first improvements in fruits, and the 

 same operation is still daily going on in nature, 

 almost unheeded by man, until the changes ai-e 

 made manifest to him by their welcome results. 

 The reason why such changes should take place, 

 or why the character first stamped by nature 

 on what has been botanically called species, or 

 highly-marked variety, should have a tendency 

 to disappear in the progeny, has been " a stum- 



blingblock to the systematic botanist and to 

 the superficial student in physiological science." 

 But that such a tendency does exist is well 

 known even to very superficial observers ; and 

 it has been remarked by those who have looked 

 more closely into the matter, that this tendency 

 is more remarkably developed in some species 

 than in others. 



It would be out of place here to attempt to 

 account for this deviation from ?what has been 

 considered an unalterable law of nature. Tak- 

 ing it, therefore, as an admitted fact that such a 

 disposition does exist, let us consider briefly 

 the share that accident and design have in the 

 matter. 



That the scientific process of hybridising is 

 no doubt the most certain mode of procuring 

 improved varieties of fruits is quite clear, yet 

 many varieties, including some of our very best 

 fraits, have been originated by accident. This is 

 exemplified in the case of the Claygate pearmain, 

 scarlet nonpareil, and Hawthoruden apples ; the 

 two first having been found growing wild in the 

 neighbourhood of Esher, Surrey — ^the former in 

 a hedgerow, and the other in the garden of a 

 petty pubUc-house ; and the remains of the last 

 still exist in the grormds of Sir J. W. Dnim- 

 mond of Hawthomden. Many others have had 

 a similar origin. Of our best pears, Williams' 

 Bon Chretien sprung up from seed in the garden 

 of a schoolmaster at AJdermaston in Berkshire ; 

 the Elton originated in an orchard in a parish of 

 that name in Herefordshire ; while the excel- 

 lent ChaumonteUe was found wild at Chaumon- 

 telle in the department of the Oise in France, 

 and the Duchesse d'Angoiileme in a similar 

 manner in the forest of ArmaUle, near Angers. 

 The Elruge, which is one of the best, if not the 

 very best of our nectarines, owes its origin to 

 a nurseryman of the name of Gurle or Gourle, 

 at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, in the reign of 

 King Charles II., before the doctrine of the 

 sexual intercourse between plants was much 

 known in Britain, from which we may naturally 

 infer that artificial impregnation had not been 

 had recourse to. The Claremont nectarine — a 

 variety of the last — was raised by Mr John 

 Greening, gardener to the Duke of Newcastle, 

 who owned Claremont about the year 1750 ; 

 and Fairohild's nectarine was raised from seed 

 by a gardener of that name, so long back as 

 previous to 1722 — both of these, in aU proba- 

 bility, without the aid of artificial fecundation. 



In America the same accidental originations 

 have been going on ever since the apple was 

 introduced into that country ; and, as accidental 

 varieties of the very highest order there, may 

 be named the Newtown pippin, Baldwin, Swaar, 

 and the Spitzenburghs, as well as many othei's. 

 Many of their peaches and plums — tTie Washing- 

 ton, for example — are also of accidental origin. 

 The same thing might be instanced as occurring 

 in all countries, and not only as regards fruits, 

 but also very generally as regards plants. 



At what period artificial impregnation, or the 

 crossing one variety with another, began to be 

 practised, with a view to improve either plants 

 or fruits, has not been at all satisfactorily re- 

 corded. The process was unknown to the an- 



