167 



of the sap vessels, which, preventing the sufficiently 

 rapid progress of the sap, causes it to burst them and 

 thus to find vent above the contraction. 



Mr. J. Roberts, of Hampsthwaite, near Ripley, re- 

 marking upon the occurrence of this in the peach and 

 nectarine, observes, that the more free-growing kinds, 

 such as the French Mignonne, Royal George and 

 Noblesse peaches, Yiolet Hative, and other nectarines, 

 worked upon stubborn stocks, are most subject to it, 

 and dwarfs more so than standards. In a few years 

 there are large excrescences at the point of union of 

 the bud with the stock, so that in that time the trees 

 have shewn a premature decay. This arises from 

 the want of reciprocy betwixt root and branch, and all 

 the khid treatment imaginable cannot counteract the 

 consequence. The sap in its downward direction 

 meets a repulse, is propelled upwards into the chan- 

 nels already surcharged, when it procures for itself an 

 outlet, and then gum disease, and a premature decay 

 of the whole plant, is the consequence. {Gard, 

 Chron. 1844, 389.) 



The occurrence of gumming in the native climate 

 of the peach is, we are given to understand, a rarity 

 as compared with what afflicts it in Britain ; and Mr. 

 Errington observes that two great evils in cultivation 

 conspire together to produce it, viz., unripeness of 

 wood and abrasion or laceration of the bark. To 

 these, however, may be added a sort of gangrenous 



