Wheat, in its indigenous state, as a natural pro* 
duction of the soil, appears to have been a very 
small grass \ and the case is still more remarkable 
with the apple and the plum. The crab seems to 
have been the parent of all our apples. And two 
fruits can scarcely be conceived more different in 
colour, size, and appearance, than the wild plum and 
the rich magnum bonum. 
The seeds of plants exalted by cultivation always 
furnish large and improved varieties ; but the fla- 
vour, and even the colour of the fruit, seems to be 
a matter of accident. Thus a hundred seeds of the 
golden pippin will all produce fine large-leaved 
apple-trees, bearing fruit of a considerable size ; 
but the tastes and colours of the apples from each 
will be different, and none will be the same in kind 
as those of the pippin itself. Some will be sweet, 
some sour, some bitter, some mawkish, some aro- 
matic ; some yellow, some green, some red, and 
some streaked. All the apples will, however, be 
much more perfect than those from the seeds of a 
crab, which produce trees all of the same kind, and 
all bearing sour and diminutive fruit. 
The power of the horticulturist extends only to 
the multiplying excellent varieties by grafting. 
They cannot be rendered permanent ; and the good 
fruits at present in our gardens are the produce 
of a few seedlings, selected probably from hundreds 
of thousands ; the results of great labour and in- 
dustry, and multiplied experiments. 
The larger and thicker the leaves of a seedling, 
and the more expanded its blossoms, the more 
it is likely to produce a good variety of fruit. 
