HORTIC 
great (kill or judgment in their endeavours to produce 
new varieties or improvements in our table-fruits ; though 
no part of Nature’s works offers a wider held for fucceif- 
ful experiments and pecuniary reward. 
The method of naturalizing trees and plants in differ¬ 
ent climates, has never been fufficiently ftudied ; but has 
been left to the'routine of common gardeners, while it 
ought to have engaged the attention of the mod acute 
phiiofophers. We know that improved fruits are the ne- 
ceflary produce of improved culture; and that the off- 
Ipring more or lefs inherits the character of its parent. 
The wild crab of our woods has thus been converted 
into the golden pippin ; and the numerous varieties of the 
plum can boaft no better origin than that of our native 
doe, railed in a better foil, and treated with fuperior cul¬ 
ture. So Itkewile experience and obfervation fufficiently 
prove, that all plants have a natural tendency to adapt 
their habits to every climate in which art or accident 
places them; and thus the pear-tree, which appears to be 
a native of the fouthern parts of Europe, or the adjoining 
parts of Ana, has completely naturalized itfelf in England, 
and has acquired, in a great number of inltances, the 
power-to ripen its fruits in the early part even of an un¬ 
favourable fummer. Hence we have fair grounds of 
hope, that the vine and peach-tree may be made to adapt 
their habits lb effectually to our climate, as to ripen their 
fruits in a very fuperior manner to what they have hi¬ 
therto done. Some valuable experiments for this pur- 
pofe have recently been made by T. A. Knight, efq. F. R. S. 
which he has molt obligingly communicated in the “Tranf- 
aCtions of the Horticultural Society of London;” from 
which we fnall extract many interefting particulars. 
Almolt every plant, the exiftence of which is not con¬ 
fined to a fingleffummer, admits of two modes of propa¬ 
gation ; by divifion of its parts, and by feed. By the firll 
of thefe we are enabled to multiply an individual into 
many, each of which, in its leaves, its flowers, and fruit, 
permanently retains, in every refpeft, the character of the 
parent ftock. No new life is here generated; and the 
graft, the layer, and the cutting, appear to poffefs the youth 
and vigour, or the age, difeale, and debility, of the plant 
of which they once formed a part. No permanent im¬ 
provement, or originality, has therefore ever been de¬ 
rived, or can be derived, from the art of the grafter, or 
the choice of ftocks of different fpecies or varieties; for, 
to life the phrafe of lord Bacon, the graft in all cafes 
cverrukth the flock, from which it receives aliment, but no 
■motion. Seedling plants, on the contrary, of every culti¬ 
vated fpecies, fport in endlefs variety. E}' feleCtion from 
thefe, therefore, we are alone to hope for fuccefs in our 
purfuit of improved varieties of the choiceft fruit. 
No experienced gardener can be ignorant, that every 
fpecies of fruit acquires its greateft Hate of perfection in 
fome peculiar foils and fituations, and under fotne limilar 
mode of culture; the feleCtion of a proper foil and filia¬ 
tion is therefore the firlt objeCt of the improver’s purfuit; 
and nothing Ihould be negleCted which can add to the 
fize, or improve the favour, of the fruit from which it is 
intended to propagate. Due attention to thefe points in 
feedling plants, will in almolt all cafes be found to com¬ 
prehend all that is necelfary to infure the introduction of 
new varieties of fruit, of equal merit with thole from 
•which they fpring; but the improver, who has to adapt 
his productions to the cold and unlteady climate of Eng¬ 
land, has neverthelefs many difficulties to contend with ; 
he has to combine hardinefs, energy of character, and 
early maturity, with the improvements of high cultivation. 
'Nature has, however, in lome mealure, pointed out the 
path he is to purfue ; and, if it be followed with patience 
and indultry, few obltacles will be found, which may not 
be either removed, or ealily palfed over. 
If two plants of the vine, or other tree of limilar ha¬ 
bits, or even if obtained from cuttings of the fame tree, 
were placed to vegetate, during feveral fucceffive feafons, 
in very different climates; if the one were planted on the 
Yob. X. No. 670, 
U L T U R E. S 93 
banks of the Rhine, and the other on tliofe of the Nile’ 
each would adapt its habits to the climate in which it was 
placed ; and if both were fubfequently brought, in early 
fpring, into a climate limilar to that of Italy, the plant 
which had adapted its habits to a cold climate would in- 
ftantly vegetate, whilft the other would remain perfectly 
torpid. Precifely the fame thing occurs in the hot-houfes 
of this country, where a plant accuftomed to the tempe¬ 
rature of the open air will vegetate ftrongly in December, 
whilft another plant of. the fame fpecies, and fprung from a 
cutting of the fame original flock, but habituated to the 
temperature of a Jlove, remains apparently lifelefs. It ap¬ 
peal’s, therefore, that the powers or vegetable life, in 
plants habituated to cold climates, are more ealily brought 
into action than in thole of hot climates ; or, in other 
words, that the plants of cold climates are molt excitable; 
and as every quality in plants becomes hereditary, when 
the caufes which firft gave exiftence to thofe qualities 
continue to operate, it follows that their feedling ofr- 
fpring will have a conltant tendency to adapt their habits 
to any climate in which art or accident places them. 
New varieties of every fpecies of fruit will be better ob¬ 
tained by introducing the farina of one variety of fruit 
into the blolFom of another, than by propagating front 
any fingle fort. When an experiment of this kind is 
made, between varieties of different fize and character, the 
farina of the fmaller kind Ihould be introduced into the 
blolfoms of the larger; for, under thefe circumftances, 
there is always a prevalence in fruit of the charafler of the 
female parent; probably owing to the following caufes. 
The feedcoats are generated wholly by the female parent, 
and thefe regulate the bulk of the lobes and plantula; and 
it has been obferved, in railing new varieties of the peach, 
that, when one (tone contained two feeds, the. plants thefe 
afforded were inferior to others. The iargeft feeds, ob¬ 
tained from the finell fruit, and from that which ripens 
molt perfectly and molt early, Ihould always be fele&ed 
on railing feedling plants. It is fcarcely necelfary to in¬ 
form the experienced horticulturalift, that it will be ne- 
cefiary to extract the ftamina of the blolfoms from which 
he propofes to propagate, lome days before the farina be¬ 
gins to Hied, when he propofes to generate new varieties 
in the manner here recommended. When young trees 
have fprung from the feed, a certain period mult elapfe 
before they can become capable of bearing fruit, and this 
period, claimed by Nature, cannot perhaps beffiortened by 
any means. Pruning and tranfplanting are both injuri¬ 
ous ; and no benefit can be effected, during this period, 
either by manure or culture. The young plants Ihould 
be fuffered to extend their branches in every direction, 
in which they do not injurioufly interfere with each other; 
and the foil Ihould juft be fufficiently rich to promote a 
moderate degree of growth, without ftimulating the plant 
to preternatural exertion, which always induces difeale. 
Thofe qualities ought alio to be fought in the parent 
fruits, which are defired in the offspring ; and the moll 
perfect and vigorous offspring will be obtained, of plants 
as of animals, when the male and female parent are not 
clofely related to each other. 
The varieties of the Peach, from which Mr. Knight firll 
propagated his feedling plants, were the large French mi- 
gnon, and the little red nutmeg, ufing the ftigmata of the 
former, and the pollen of the latter. The trees of each 
variety had been removed, early in the fpring of the pre¬ 
ceding year 1801, from pots of moderate fize into others 
which were very large, and were filled with mould of the 
moft favourable quality; and in thefe pots the plants bad 
grown with exceffive vigour. The aid of artificial heat 
was employed in the lpring of 1802, to enable the wood 
and blolfoms of each plant to acquire the moft perfeft 
Hate of maturity in the fucceeding autumn ; and during 
winter the pots were defended from levere froft, that the 
minute fibrous roots of the plants might be wholly pre¬ 
ferred; and, as the fpring approached, the trees were kept 
in as Low and equal a temperature as poffible, that the 
5 |d powers 
