disease and debility, and the fruit of some of them is not in any degree inferior to those from which it derived its existence. Every seed, though several were taken from the same apple, has afforded a new and distinct variety; and some of these grow with more luxuriance than others; and the fruits produced by the different plants, possess very different degrees of merit. An estimate may, in some measure, be made of their good and bad qualities, at the conclusion of the first summer, by the resemblance the leaves bear to the highly cultivated, or wild kinds, as has been remarked by the writers on this subject, of the 17th century."
It thus appears, that the state of the plant from which the seed is taken, has the strongest influence. in forming the character of the seedling plant produced from it, and that it is of the utmost importance, that, when plants are to be propagated by seed, the parent should be in the healthiest state, and the fruit in the highest degree of perfection. Another principle should also be borne in mind, viz. that "the planter must seek those qualities in the parent tree, which he wishes to find in the future seedling plants;" and on reading the following passage, it will readily occur, that the most valuable qualities of a grape, unfit to bear the climate, may, by crossing, be united with that
