LETTER XVII. 



181 



the graft in order to keep the bud in its right place " 

 in Dr Carpenter's system.. The " dying-out " is, I 

 apprehend, merely a reverting-back to the species^ not 

 the actual death and extinction of the plant or tree, — 

 the loss of that elevation in the scale of vegetation, 

 which is commonly the result of '^high" cultivation, 

 and which, being an accidental, or at least a superin- 

 duced quality, is not so tenaciously retained as the 

 primitive qualities. These, however, the bud will 

 retain equally with the seed, and as indefinitely as it 

 can. To say that trees raised from buds or grafts 

 lose their vigour sooner than trees of the same species 

 raised from seed, is, I am persuaded, incorrect as 

 expressive of a general fact, and a misapprehension of 

 what is occasionally seen to occur. The remark has 

 reference to our common fruit-trees ; and it may be 

 true that of two Apple-trees, raised, the one from a 

 seed, and therefore a " Crab," — the other from a graft, 

 and therefore a cultivated variety," both being of 

 the same age and growing under the like circum- 

 stances as to soil and situation, the Crab will last 

 longer than the cultivated variety, and continue longer 

 to grow vigorously. But the circumstances in other 

 respects are different. The cultivated variety is a 

 more prolific tree than the Crab, and bears a much 

 larger fruit. And just in proportion as its vital 

 energies are directed to the formation and ripening of 

 a fruit which is larger and more abundant than is 



