158 
DIGGING, TRENCHING, ETC. 
were yet open, the stamens had already shed 
their pollen on the stigmas, and that conse- 
quently the act of fecundation was made in 
secret, and the same as in the case of the 
wheat. However, I was not disheartened ; 
and after having made this observation, I be- 
lieved I should yet be able to obviate the 
difficulty which presented itself, by forcibly 
opening, early in the morning, the two folioles 
of the calyx before their natural expansion, 
in the hope that I should be able to find the 
anthers still closed. But I was disappointed, 
for to my great surprise I found that the stig- 
mas had already received the fertile powder 
of the anthers. It appears to me, therefore, 
that the flowers of the poppy, by their con- 
formation, are evidently incapable of being 
crossed. This circumstance, however, has not 
prevented the flowers of the common poppy, 
whose organization is the same as that of 
those of the species of Tournefort, from pro- 
ducing a great many varieties. 
A short time before the incident I have 
just related, I found, by chance, one with 
double flowers, which had, so to speak, sprung 
up spontaneously in my garden, and which I 
preserved, allowing the seeds to sow them- 
selves, as it were. Some years after I had 
flowers with twenty different colours from 
this plant. 
From these observations we may conclude 
that it is not requisite to cross the poppy in 
order to produce those numerous varieties, 
which are familiar to every one, since they 
are continually crossing themselves without 
demanding any care or trouble at our hands. 
Other plants which I have not yet noticed 
may be, by the organization of their flowers, 
in the same case as the wheats and the pop- 
pies ; but I think that the vine in its floration 
presents a conformation in which it would be 
difficult, if not impossible, to submit it to the 
artificial process with success. The flowers 
of the vine are composed of a calyx with five 
very short teeth, and five small petals adher- 
ing at their summit, and swelled out by the 
development of the anthers. This disposition 
must be favourable to the internal process of 
fecundation, and prevent the pollen of any 
species or variety whatever from coming be- 
tween the pistil of a flower of this genus and 
its own stamens. If, then, I am not wrong as 
to the manner in which the phenomenon of 
fertilization takes place in the flowers of the 
vine, it appears to me very difficult, if not 
quite impossible, that artificial hybridation can 
have any influence on their fructification. It 
may be asked, How, then, has this genus been 
able to produce so many different varieties of 
fruit, so various in size, form, colour, and 
especially in flavour, that the wines which 
have been made from them offer more numer- 
ous and decided points of dissemblance in 
this respect than the grapes themselves ? Of 
the almost innumerable varieties of vines 
which are to be found at the present day, both 
in the vineyards and in nurseries, very little 
of the origin is known. They have all, more or 
less, been raised long ago, nobody knows how, 
though, by whom or what means, it is more 
than likely they originated from a very small 
number. There are only probabilities in this 
matter. "We may perhaps be permitted to 
suppose that the vine, which was originally 
from Asia, and first cultivated in that part of 
the world, possesses great fecundity, which has 
caused it to produce the more varieties as it 
changed climate, soil, and exposure ; and that 
the more it has been modified by these differ- 
ent causes, the more it appears susceptible of 
being modified still ; for from the seeds most 
recently sown, new varieties, entirely different 
from the primitive sorts, have appeared, 
springing up as it were from each pip. 
DIGGING, TRENCHING, ETC. 
The operations of this class which are per- 
formed in the cultivation of the soil, have for 
their objects its pulverisation and aeration, and 
the intermixing of its particles, to the depth 
to which the roots of the crops penetrate. In 
a general view, every operation of this kind 
may be said to be advantageous. Very light 
and loose soils, indeed, are sometimes benefited 
by a certain degree of compression and con- 
solidation, and to this extent should be left for 
a time without digging ; but in the greater 
number of cases, the fertility of the soil is 
increased by at least an annual thorough 
trenching, and by digging or forking to a less 
depth several times during the year, either 
between the crops, if they remain long on the 
ground, or during the short intervening period 
between the removing of one crop and the 
replacing it by another. 
The advantages obtained from the proper 
pulverisation of the soil are numerous and 
important. In the first place, greater scope is 
afforded to the roots of the plants ; and on the 
number and healthy action of the fibrous ex- 
tremities of these roots, the vigour of the plants 
is mainly dependent. It is the spongioles of 
the roots which draw up from the soil the 
various matters which go to the nourishment 
of the plant ; and therefore the more the soil 
is pulverised, and the number of these spon- 
gioles increased, the more nourishment will be 
absorbed, and consequently the greater vigour 
