62 History.[Fuly,

te& the errors of ignorance, and to expoſe.the miſrepreſentations of fraud; the advantages which the public may ultimately derive from the eſtabliſhmentg will probably exceed the moſt ſanguine hopes of its founders,

Horticultüre, in its preſent ſtate, may with propriety be divided into two diſtin& branches, the uſeful, and the ornamental: the firſt muſt occupy the principal attention of the members of the Society, but the ſecond will not be neglected; and it will be their objet, wherever it is pratticable, to combine both.

Experience. and obſervation appear to have ſufficiently proved, 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 ſouthein parts of Europe, or the adjoining parts of Aſia, has completely natupaliſed itſelf in Britain, and bas acquired, in a great number, of inſtances, the power to ripen its fruit in the early part of an unfavourable ſummer: the crab tree has, in the ſame manner, adapted its habits to the frozen. regions of Siberia«"But when we import either of theſe fruits, in their cultivated ſtate, from happier cJimates, they are often found incapable of acquiring a perfett-ſtate of maturity, even when trained to a ſouth wall.

As. the pear and crab tree, in the preceding caſes, have acquired powers of ripeving their fruits in climates much colder than thoſe in which they were placed by nature, we have ſome grounds of hope, that the vine and peach tree may be made to adapt their habits to our climate, and to ripen their fruit with- out the aid of artificial heat, or the refle&ion of a wall: and though we are at preſent, little acquainted with.the mode of culture, beſt calculated to produce the neceſſary changes in the conſtitution and habit of plants, attentive obſer= vation and experience will ſoon diſcover it; and experiments have already been made, which prove the facility ofraiſing as fine varieties of fruit in this eountry, as any which have been imported from others.

Almost every plant, the exiftence of which is not confined to a ſingle ſummer, admits of two modes of propagation--by diviſion of its parts», and by ſeed. By the firſt of theſe methods, we are enabled to multiply an in= dividual into many; each of which, in its leaves, its flowers, and fruit, permanently retains, in every reſpect, the charader of the parent ſtock. No new life is here generated; and the graft, the layer, and cutting, ap- pear to poſſeſs the youth and vigour, or the age and debility of the plant; of which they once formed a part*.

No permanent improvement has, therefore, ever been derived, or can be expected, from the art of the grafter, or the, choice of ſtocks of different ſpecies, or varieties; for, to uſethe phraſe of Lord Bacon, the graft in all caſes overruleth the ſtock, from which it receives aliment, but no motion, Scedling plants, on the contrary, of every cultivated ſpecies, Sport in end- leſs variety. By Selection from theſe, therefore, we can only hope ſor luc- cels, in our purſuit of new and improved varieties of each ſpecies of plant of fruit 3 and to promote experiments of this kind, the Horticultural Soci-

,ety propoſe to give ſome honorary premiums to thoſe who ſhall produce be- fore them, or ſuch perſons as they Mall appoint, valuable new. varieties of fruit, which, having been raiſed from ſeeds, have come into exiſtence Üince the etablilhment of.the institution.

In the culture of many fruits, without reference to the introdu&tion of new varieties, the ſociety hope to be able to point out ſome important im- provements. Several ſorts, the walnut and mulberry» for inſtance, are not Produced till the trees have acquired a conſiderable age, and therefore, ehough the latter fruit is highly valned, it is at preſent very little culti=

* The diſcaſed Rate of young grafted trees of the golden pippin, and the

debaſement of the favour of that fruit, afford one, amongst a thouſand in- etances which may be adduced, of the decay of thoſe varieties vf fruit which have bcan long propagated by giafting,&c-