186 On the Connection between the Leaves and Fruit. 



pally dependant on the foliage. Even the diversity of the sea- 

 sons, between one year and another, gives rise to noticeable 

 alterations in the qualities of the produce from the same 

 trees. 



Perhaps a further advancement in the knowledge of vege- 

 table nature may enable the scientific gardener to govern 

 the foliage of his trees by artificial methods, so as to adapt 

 them better to the vicissitudes of locality, and to the produc- 

 tion of the more desirable fruits * It is likely that the unfa- 

 vourable change induced upon the Downton Pippin by a 

 milder locality than that of its native place, may depend 

 upon a more luxuriant production of leaves ; and if so, under 

 such new situations, the good qualities of that fruit might be 

 again restored by reducing its exuberant foliage. The gra- 

 dual deteriorations arising from old age in trees, are equally 

 evinced upon the foliage and the fruit. It belongs to the 

 peculiar habits of some varieties of trees and plants, to pro- 

 duce a greater or less proportion of leaves than is ordinary ; 

 and perhaps the peculiarities in their physical properties, 

 make some of such leaves more efficient than others ; since 

 the differences in their firmness, thickness, and colour, may 

 be reasonably supposed to influence one or more of their 

 vital offices. A remarkable instance of the adaptation of 

 foliage occurs in Winter Spinage, the leaves being of a more 



* I am informed by a practical gardener, that buds may be artificially pro- 

 duced upon the long naked spaces of boughs, by making scars into the bark, simi- 

 lar to those left by imperfect leaves, or gem-like stipulas. Indeed nature points 

 out the efficacy of such methods, by those clusters of twigs so often displayed in 

 the branches of the Elm, Birch, and Wild Cherry, and which result from the 

 punctures of insects 



