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XLI. On the Want of Permanence of Character in Varieties 

 of Fruit, when propagated by Grafts and Buds. By Tho- 

 mas Andrew Knight, Esq. F.R.S. fyc. President. 



Read April 4, 1815. 



New varieties of fruit are generally supposed, by gardeners, 

 to be obtainable from seedling plants only ; and every part 

 of each seedling tree, which has been detached, as a graft or 

 bud, is usually believed to be capable of affording fruit of 

 the same kind, if subsequently grafted upon the same stock, 

 and cultivated in the same manner. This opinion I also 

 formerly entertained; though I was always at a loss to 

 account for the existence of many kinds, which were obvious- 

 ly different, and which yet much more closely resembled 

 each other, than any varieties which I had ever been able 

 to obtain from seeds. But I am now satisfied, that many 

 varieties of fruit, which are supposed to be totally distinct, 

 have been propagated from branches of the same original 

 tree ; and that few, if any, varieties of fruit can, with strict 

 propriety, be called permanent, when propagated by buds or 

 grafts. 



I have witnessed many instances of the variations above 

 mentioned, but much the most extraordinary of these occurred 

 in my garden, in the last autumn. A tree of the Yellow 

 Magnum Bonum Plum (the Dame Aubert of Duhamel), 

 which was forty years old, had always borne fruit of the 

 usual colour ; but, in the last year, one of its branches pro- 



