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LXVI. Upon the Advantages of Propagating from the Roots 

 of old ungrafted Fruit Trees. By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read December 3, 1816. 



Th e progressive influence of debility and decay upon old 

 varieties of fruit trees is now so generally admitted, that it 

 is wholly unnecessary to advance facts or arguments to 

 prove it : the general law of Nature appears to be, that no 

 living organized being shall exist beyond a limited term of 

 years ; and that law must be obeyed. It is nevertheless in 

 the power of man to extend the lives of individual vegetable 

 beings far beyond the period apparently assigned by nature ; 

 and parts of the same annual plant may be preserved through 

 many years, perhaps through ages, though it cannot be ren- 

 dered immortal. 



I have quoted in a former communication* the statement 

 of Columella, that cuttings from bearing branches of the 

 Vine did not afford durable trees, and this fact appears to 

 have been known at an earlier period ; for Virgil, whose 

 practical knowledge of planting and grafting was probably 

 very limited, and who therefore may be supposed to give the 

 opinion of some previous writer, has directed the planter not 

 to choose cuttings from the upper branches of trees : 



" Neve flagella 

 " Summa pete aut summa destringe ex arbore plantas." 



Georg. lib. II. 299. 

 * Horticultural Transactions, Vol. i. page 60. 



