HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 361 



miliar examples in the Strawberry and the Willow. Man turns this pro- 

 perty to account by artificial processes of multiplication ; one tree he pro- 

 pagates by layers, another by cuttings planted in the ground. Going a 

 step further he inserts a cutting of one individual upon the stem of some 

 other individual of the same species, under the name of a bud or a scion, 

 and thus obtains a vegetable twin. 



It is not contended, for there is nothing to show, that these artificial pro- 

 ductions are more short-lived than either parent, provided the constitution 

 of the two individuals is in perfect accordance. There is not the smallest 

 evidence — it has not been even. conjectured — that if a seedling Apple tree 

 is cut into two parts, and these parts are reunited by grafting, the duration 

 of the tree will be shorter than it would have been in .the absence of the 

 operation. 



It is nevertheless believed by many- that the races of some "cultivated 

 plants have but a brief duration, provided they are multiplied otherwise 

 thau by seeds. No one indeed pretends that the Garlic of Ascalon has 

 only a short life, although it has been thus^ propagated from the time when 

 it bore the name of Shummin, and fed the laborers at the Pyramids ; nor. 

 do we know that the bulb-bearing Lily has been supposed to have less in- 

 herent vigor than if it were multiplied by seeds instead of bulbs. It is 

 only among certain kinds of plants that exceptions to the great natural law 

 of vegetation are supposed to exist. . It is thought that although the wild 

 Potato possesses indefinite vitality, yet that the varieties of it which are 

 brought into cultivation pass their lives circumscribed within very narrow 

 limits; and the same doctrine has been held concerning fruit trees. The 

 great advocate of this view, the late Mr. Andrew Knight, rested his case 

 upon the disappearance of certain kinds of Apples and Pears, once to be 

 found in the orchards of Herefordshire, but nOw no longer to be met with. 

 This he ascribed to cultivated varieties being naturally short-lived, and to 

 an impossibility of arresting their gradual decay by any process of dismem- 

 berment ; and following out this theory he strongly urged the necessity of 

 renewing vitality by continually raising fresh varieties from seed. It is 

 difficult to comprehend what train of reasoning led to this speculation. We 

 know that wild plants may be propagated by dismemberment for an indefi- 

 nite period ; we know that when such wild plants spring up from seed the 

 dismembering process still goes on and still without exhibiting symptoms of 

 exhausted vitality ;- and yet if a plant grows in a garden, and is brought 

 under the direct control of man, the power is thougnt to be lost, or so much- 

 impaired that indefinite multiplication no longer becomes possible. Gart 

 this be true ? Most assuredly the cases adduced in support of the doctrkw* 

 are susceptible of another explanation, perfectly consistent with the general- 1 

 laws of vegetation. • . 



That renewal by seed will not restore what is called exhausted vitality, 

 was sufficiently proved by the experiments with Potatoes after the bligiit 

 made its appearance. We were assured by an ingenious' writer in ohe of 

 the daily papers that the constitutional power of the Potato was on the de- 

 cline ; in other words, that the lives of individuals was approaching their 

 end ; that the blight arose in consequence, and that a certain remedy would 

 be the renewal of the existing races by sowing seeds. Hundreds 1 joined 

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