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with vigour, when those taken from the bearing branches would not. The following experiment will, at least, evince the probability of this in the pear tree:—I took cuttings from the extremities of the bearing branches of some old ungrafted pear-trees, and others from scions which sprung out of trunks near the ground, and inserted some of each on the same stocks. The former grew without thorns, as in the cultivated varieties, and produced blossoms the second year; whilst the latter assumed the appearance of stocks just raised from seeds, were covered with thorns, and have not yet produced any blossoms.
The extremities of those branches, which produce seeds on every tree, probably show the first indication of decay; and we frequently see (particularly in the oak) young branches produced from the trunk, when the old ones have been dead. The same tree when cropped will produce an almost eternal succession of branches. The durability of the apple and pear I have long suspected to be different, but that none of either would vegetate with vigour much, if at all, beyond the life of the parent stock, provided that died from mere old age. I am confirmed in this opinion by the books you did me the honour to send me; of the apples mentioned and described by Parkinson, the names only remain; but many of Evelyn's are still well known, particularly the red-streak. This apple, he informs me, was raised from seed by Lord Scudamore in the beginning of the last century.[1] We have many trees of it, but they appear to have been in a state of decay during the last forty years. Some others mentioned by him are in a much better state of vegetation, but they have all ceased to deserve the attention of the planter. The durability of the pear is probably something more than double that of the apple.
It has been remarked by Evelyn, and by almost every writer since, on the subject of planting, that the growth of plants raised from seeds was more rapid, and that they produced better trees than those obtained from layers or cuttings. This seems to point out some kind of decay attending the latter modes of propagation; though the custom in the public nurseries of taking layers from stools (trees cropped annually close to the ground) probably retards its effects, as each plant rises immediately from the root of the parent stock.
- ↑ Probably about the year 1634.
