NURSERIES. 



107 



pear, plum, gooseberry, potato, pea, which sport m 

 infinite varieties, differing considerably in size, colour, 

 taste, firmness of texture, period of growth, almost 

 in every recognisable quality. In all these kinds 

 man is influencial in preventing deterioration, by 

 careful selection of the largest or most valuable as 

 breeders ; but in timber trees the opposite course 

 has been pursued. The large growing varieties be- 

 ing so long of coming to produce seed, that many 

 plantations are cut down before they reach this ma^ 

 turity, the small growing and weakly varieties, 

 known by early and extreme seeding, have been con- 

 tinually selected as reproductive stock, from the ease 

 and conveniency with which their seed could be pro- 

 cured ; and the husks of several kinds of these in- 

 variably kiln-dried *, in order that the seeds might 

 be the more easily extracted ! May we, then, won- 

 der that our plantations are occupied by a sickly 

 short-lived puny race, incapable of supporting exist- 

 ence in situations where their own kind had former- 

 ly flourished — -particularly evinced in the genus Pi- 



* If the heat and evaporation of a gardener's pocket for seve- 

 ral days be sufficient to render the seeds of melons and gourds 

 productive of plants of earlier maturity, that is less disposed to 

 extension and more to reproductionj — what may be expected 

 from kiln-drying fir-cones ? 



