M. DECAISNE ON THE PAKADISE APPLE. 



57 



sweetish fruits {Malm communis), the other with glabrous leaves 

 and sour fruits (Mains acerba). No line of demarcation can be 

 observed when numerous specimens from different localities are 

 examined. I have before me bunches of Wild Apples bearing 

 fruits and leaves, some of the latter glabrous, the others downy, 

 although all the fruits are yellow ; and I have already pointed out 

 that for 300 years the Apple has been propagated by cuttings : a 

 race has been established. Gardeners are too much inclined to 

 dogmatize, and to take the exception for the rule. When they 

 see that a particular variety does not succeed with them, imme- 

 diately they jump to the conclusion that it is degenerating, and 

 that it is so everywhere. There have been no important and 

 comparative experiments whatever on the grafting of the Apple or 

 of the Pear. All that has been done in this direction has been 

 confined to individual observation, the results of which have been 

 taken as proved without verification. What nonsense has been 

 printed on the subject of the degeneration of varieties, and of 

 their more or less complete recovery on the Paradise or on the 

 Doucin, and on the Free Stock or on the Quince in the case of the 

 Pear ! 



I have accumulated materials which do not permit me to adopt 

 the theory of the transformation of one species into another, 

 though I admit that species are very variable. The " Malus" re- 

 main Apples as the " JPirus" remain Pears, in spite of the 

 diversity of their forms and the infinite number of their varieties. 

 Neither do I believe in the metamorphosis of Raphanistrum into 

 Maphanus, any more than I have credited the change from the 

 wild form of the Carrot into the Yellow Carrot, or that of the 

 wild Cabbage of our chalk cliffs into a cultivated Cabbage, or that 

 of Oats into Bye, that of iEgilops into Wheat, <fcc, of which the 

 journals contain so many accounts. Plants do not get so mixed 

 up in Nature. I fear this letter is rather long ; but the subject 

 would require a much longer one, if time and space would permit 

 me to treat it thoroughly. 



VOL. II. 



I 



