194 



On the Preservation of Fruits. 



upon the powers of life j but when the same fruit has some 

 time passed its state of perfect maturity, and has begun to 

 shrivel, the powers of life are probably no longer, or at most 

 very feebly, in action ; and the fruit appears to be then pre- 

 served by the combined operation of its cellular texture, the 

 anti-septic powers of the saccharine matter it contains, and 

 by the exclusion of air by its external skin ; for if that be 

 destroyed, it immediately perishes. If longer retained in 

 a dry and warm temperature, the grape becomes gradually 

 converted into a raisin ; and its component parts are then 

 only held in combination by the ordinary laws of chemistry. 



A Nonpareil Apple, or a Catillac, a D' Auch, or a Bergamotte 

 de Bugi Pear, exhibits all the characters of a living vegetable 

 body long after it has been taken from the tree, and appears 

 to possess all the powers of other similar vegetable bodies, 

 except that of growing or vitally uniting to itself other 

 matter ; and the experiments, which I shall proceed to state, 

 prove that the Pear is operated upon by external causes, 

 nearly i i the same manner after it has been detached from 

 the tree, as when it remains vitally united to it. 



Most of the fine French Pears, particularly the D'Auch, are 

 much subject, when cultivated in a cold and unfavourable 

 climate, to crack before they become full grown upon the 

 trees, a d consequently, to decay before their proper 

 season, or state of maturity : and those which present these 

 defects in my garden, are therefore always taken immediately 

 from the trees to a vinery, in which a small fire is constantly 

 kept in winter, and they are there placed at a small distance 

 over its flue. Thus circumstanced, a part of my crop of D'Auch 

 Pears ripen, and will perish, if not used, in November, when 



