AND ADAPTATIONS OF TREATMENT. 
337 
antagonistic to maturation. Under ordinary circumstances the sap absorbed by the roots 
is carried upwards into the branches, spread out among the leaves, and then exposed to 
light, heat, and air. The effect of exposure to the influence of such powerful agencies is 
to drive off a portion of watery matter, and by a process called elaboration to change the 
crude sap into an organisable matter, called elaborate sap, out of which the flowers and 
fruits are formed. 
But climate here fulfils a special office. In a dry climate, or in a dry season, the supply 
of liqueform food is cut short, and there is nothing to interrupt this elaboratory process, 
provided the opposite conditions have prevailed to a sufficient extent to have supplied 
matter for elaboration. On the other hand, in a damp climate, or during a damp season, 
when the soil and atmosphere are extraordinarily charged with humidity, the supply of 
liqueform food will he more or less augmented according to the circumstances ; and if the 
conditions continue, the supply will be prolonged also, both of which interrupt, if they do 
not well nigh arrest, the elaboratory process, and tend to the production of leafy growth, to 
the exclusion of flowers and fruit. 
When growing in a state of nature, plants of all kinds establish for themselves a 
certain balance between root and branch, variable indeed according to the conditions of 
growth, but clearly apparent whenever these conditions are favourable. Thus in nature as 
many branches are developed as the roots can nourish, and as many roots are formed as 
will suffice to furnish food to the branches. In artificial culture this equilibrium is, more 
or less, in all cases, destroyed, and hence in producing maturity or ripeness of growth 
under these artificial conditions, there is another agency to regulate and control. 
Now since the growth of plants is dependent on certain conditions of food and climate, 
it would seem apparent enough that the agencies, by which the maturation of that growth 
is to he secured, are to he sought in modifications of the supply of food, and of the condition 
of the climate, by and in which the growth of the plants is to be carried on ; and so in 
truth it is found to be. Large supplies of food and a dull moist climate are found to be 
conducive to vegetative growth ; whilst a limitation of food and a bright arid climate are 
found conducive to the ripening process, provided always that the vegetative growth has 
advanced so far that there may be something to ripen. The chief agencies by which the 
cultivator may secure maturation of growth are therefore these — limitation of food, 
especially of watery food ; exposure to drought ; exposure to light. 
Limitation of the supply of food is brought about either by the confinement or the 
abscission of the roots, the former being practised in the case of potted plants, the latter 
in the case of such as are planted in the open soil. The effect is the same in both cases, 
though brought about by an opposite process. In the one case the roots (whose spongioles 
are the feeding mouths) are allowed to multiply within a given space until the soil becomes 
exhausted, or many of the spongioles become fixed into positions where contact with the 
unexhausted particles of the soil is impossible. This is the condition of being what is 
called “pot-bound,” the result of which is the ripening of the growth previously made, 
during the period when the roots were unable by contact with the body of soil in which 
they were placed, or in consequence of its yet unexhausted nutritious properties, to send up 
a bountiful supply of sap. In the other case the quantity of roots is reduced, periodically 
or otherwise, by cutting away portions of the larger and coarser ones, so that the number 
of feeding mouths is reduced. This is root-pruning in any or all of its phases, the effect 
of which is naturally the checking of all exuberant growth, by which means the proper 
maturation of the remainder is made a matter of certainty if the climatic conditions are 
favourable. Potted plants may at any time be still further restricted by root-pruning, if 
their constitutions are capable of bearing up against so rude a mode of treatment ; and 
planted-out subjects may be permanently restricted by limiting the range of their roots. 
In limiting the supply of food by abscission, coarse tap-roots should, above all others and 
in all cases, be removed. 
It is possible to feed a plant with food over-rich, and the effect of this is quite analogous 
to that produced by the absorption of too much watery matter, namely, exuberant leafy 
growth. The limitation of the supply of food for the purpose of maturation, must, 
VOL. i. — no. xr. xx 
