228 
THE FLORIST. 
It has, however, been found that seed saved and sown from an old 
and decaying tree will infallibly produce plants which approach much 
nearer to its original or wild state than those seeds from a young and 
vigorous tree; therefore, knowing this natural inclination of old trees to 
retrograde. Dr, Van Mons (one of the most successful raisers of our 
best sorts of Pears) adopted the opposite principle of saving his seeds 
from young and vigorous seedling trees without paying much regard to 
its quality as long as it varied. His practice was thus : his seeds were 
sown in beds, where the plants remained till he could judge of their 
characters ; he then selected those he thought most promising and 
planted them out, patiently awaiting the result. Nothing daunted at 
linding most of them inferior in quality, though differing from their 
parents, he saves and sows again ; this generation fruits earlier than the 
last, and shows a larger quantity, .of improved character; he again 
immediately gathers, and, sowing the seeds of this generation, produces 
a third, then a fourth, and even a fifth, generation direct from the 
original sort, each generation coming more quickly into bearing than its 
immediate predecessor ; the fifth sowing of Pears produced fruit at three 
years, anJ lurnislied a greater number of varieties. He found the 
Pear to require the longest time of all fruits to attain perfection; the 
Apple requires but four generations, while the Peach, Cherry, Plum, 
and other stone fruits needed but three generations to bring them to 
perfection, while the Pear required five reproductions from seed to 
attain its greatest excellence It was also a leading feature of this 
celebrated raiser to subdue or enfeeble the coarse luxuriance of the tree, 
to produce which Dr. Van Mons always gathered his fruit before tkeg 
were ripe, and allowed them to rot before planting the seed. Such was 
his practice, which is sufficient to show that our best varieties of fruits 
are not natural forms but the artificial productions of culture, which 
has enfeebled the natural visour and r^uced the exuberance of the 
tree, but its counter action has refined and increased the flesh or pulp 
of the fruit, and in most instances reduced the size of the seeds. Now, 
this being the case, nothing can be more convincing than that this 
course of reproduction has introduced a very debilitated race of fruits 
into cultivation. 
It is a well known fact that all our hardiest and most vigorous 
varieties have sprung up in an accidental manner, as if nature made 
the effort to produce an advance out of the materials artificial culture 
afforded her ; while, on the other hand, the most debilitated are those 
produced after the Van Mons system, and consequently are impaired 
in health in their very origin, and upon which those theorists centre 
their points as examples of the deterioration of races. 
Another very frequent source of unhealthiness proceeds from the 
want of care in the propagation of fruits. For instance, the Pear is 
often worked upon the Quince and Thorn; I have even known it to be 
worked upon the Mountain Ash, consequently the durability of the life 
of the tree is reduced quite two-thirds of its natural limits. Grafts and 
cuttings being also taken from these trees naturally inherit the enfeebled 
condition of their parents, and, like them, soon suffer from the unnatural 
stock ; whereas, if care is taken to work any variety upon a healthy 
