FRUIT TREES AND THEIR CULTURE. 
489 
Cattleyas, as they complete their growth, 
should be removed to the coolest part of the 
cool house, and receive little or no water. 
Dendrobiums should be removed to a cool 
airy part of the house, in order to harden 
their shoots ; water very little. 
Oncidiums. — Place them in an airy situation 
as they complete their growth, and water very 
sparingly at the mere roots. 
Stanhopeas. — Apply water very cautiously, 
as the thick fleshy roots are very impatient of 
moisture at this season of the year. 
FRUIT TREES AND THEIR CULTURE. 
Although this subject might be divided 
into twenty different papers for the purpose 
of giving the details of management necessary 
to so many different subjects as there are 
fruits, there are certain general principles 
which bear upon all, and which we seem now 
more disposed to treat of than minor points, 
because they affect all more or less, and may 
be taken as a foundation for general fruit 
culture. We start with a theory that may 
not be acceptable to the German dogma of 
Morphology, which, as explained by modern 
writers in its behalf, implies nothing more 
nor less than that flowers are metamorphosed 
leaves, and fruit stunted branches, because we 
deny that any one organ alters into another 
organ, and affirm, that plants are naturally 
as perfect as animals, and that a leaf no more 
alters to a flower, nor a branch to a fruit, than 
an arm alters to a leg, or a finger to a thumb. 
It is not our purpose to refute the nonsense 
which enforces these dogmas by an appeal to 
those specimens which exhibit one organ in 
the place usually occupied by another. It is 
sufficient for our purpose to appeal also to 
animal specimens, where a leg is seen in the 
place of an arm, and various other mon- 
strosities in which the ordinary purposes of 
nature seem prevented. Our theory, founded 
on unerring fact, is, that in any atom of a 
plant, there are the germs of leaves, branches, 
flowers, and fruit ; that suffered to grow in 
its usual way, all these take their places with 
the regularity and precision of all organized 
subjects ; that while the plant is young and 
vigorous, and the sap in the peculiar state 
which the proportion the root bears to the tree 
requires, the germs of leaves and branches are 
alone excited, and those of fruit and flowers 
are quiescent ; and that when the tree attains 
maturity, the sap changes its character, the 
germs of flowers and fruit are excited, and 
come as a matter of course ; the plant is per- 
fected by the production of the fruit, and the 
seeds in due time. The change in the sap as 
the tree attains its maturity arises out of the 
difference of supply, that being in proportion 
to the size of the tree, and the capacity of the 
root, and the effect of the sun and air being 
to thicken or elaborate the lessened quantity. 
From this we maintain, that giving exciting 
matter to increase the capacity of the root, or 
cutting the tree smaller to diminish its wants, 
will again induce the growth of leaves and 
branches, and that cutting away the roots 
when a tree was in full vigour, would so di- 
minish the supply of sap as to produce the 
necessary change at an earlier period, and 
induce the production of flowers and fruit. 
We establish all these things on unquestion- 
able proof, and upon that ground our manage- 
ment of fruit trees. There are various modes, 
however, of reducing the supply of sap : some 
have effected it by what is termed ringing 
the bark, that is, cutting away the bark all 
round the stem, or of a single branch, a certain 
width, from half an inch wide on small 
branches to two inches wide on a trunk : this 
has been known to have the effect on the 
part beyond or above the ring. But to pro- 
duce any effect upon the whole tree, there is 
nothing so good as pruning the root itself; 
and if it is desirable to fruit the tree very 
young, occasional removals are desirable. In 
some cases the effect is produced by grafting 
on a stock which naturally gives less sap than 
the sort grafted on it would take up. In read- 
ing books of old practice, and considering the 
various means by which fruit is produced, 
every expedient is founded on the same de- 
sign, — that of lessening the supply of sap. We 
see nothing to recommend in any of them. 
Some bend the branches so suddenly as to 
cause an interruption to the circulation of the 
sap, and, thereby, lessen the quantity beyond 
the bend. All these things, however, merely 
confirm our notion, that the whole art of 
making trees bear out of their natural course, 
consists in imitating the conditions of matu- 
rity as closely as possible. Proofs are at hand 
for any body who will take the trouble. Take 
a young tree of any kind, — a dwarf cherry, or 
pear or apple tree, and plant it in a pot ; as 
soon as the roots fill the pot, and the supply of 
nourishment is thereby lessened, it will begin 
to bloom and bear fruit ; by these means, trees 
not two feet high, in pots of a foot across, are 
obtained loaded with blossom, and bearing as 
much fruit as the capacity of the root will 
supply nourishment for ; and if there be more 
than ought to be ripened on so small a tree, 
they should be thinned, otherwise a number 
will fall for lack of support, and those which 
remain on the tree Avill be smaller than the 
