PROFUSION OF FRUIT-BUDS. WISE PROVISION AGAINST ACCIDENTS. PERIOD OF MATURITY OF PLANTS. MORPHOLOGY. THE YOUNG PLANT GROWS BY DEVELOPMENT OF STEM AND BRANCHES. LEAF BUDS ALL POINTED. THE PERIOD OF ADOLESCENCE VARIES. THE CENTURY PLANT. A DEFINITE PERIOD FOR EACH VARIETY. HOW DIMINISHED OR EXTENDED. STARVING. CROWDING. CUTTING THE ROOTS. OLD OR UNCONGENIAL STOCKS. AT MATURITY AN ACCUMULATION OF NUTRITIVE MATTER. PRESERVING THE BALANCE BETWEEN GROWTH AND FRUITAGE. WE DO NOT THIN FRUIT ENOUGH. TREES EXHAUST THEMSELVES. BIENNIAL BEARERS. ANNUAL BEARERS DESIRABLE. DISBUDDING. FIELD'S HEDGES OF PEARS. REMOVE PORTIONS OF FRUIT. CUTTING-IN THE SHOOTS TO REDUCE FRUIT. DR. HULL AND OTHERS. THINNING THE STRAWBERRY. GOOSEBERRY. GRAPE. THINNING APPLES BY THRESHING THE TREES. BY SEVERE WINTER PRUNING. Every person who has looked at a bearing fruit tree in the winter season, must have been struck with wonder at the great profusion of fruit-buds with which it was clothed; they are crowded along the slender spray of some varieties as thickly as a necklace of beads, or still more abundantly, like clusters of pearls, they are crowded together upon the little fruit-spurs. We are inclined to cavil at this profusion of nature, and to ask why this waste of vegetative effort. But we may rest assured that it is only another evidence of the unerring wisdom of Him who doeth all things well. All blossoming and fruiting is but a changed condition of those buds that would otherwise have produced leaves and wood-growth. Every tree, sooner or later, reaches a point which we call its period of maturity, when some of its buds are thus modified. The same elemental parts are still present; but those that were arranged for the production of an elongated shoot, with leaves set around it in some definite manner, and destined for the formation of woody growth, are now so constituted as to have a growth of very short extension, and furnished with modified leaves, so changed, that we scarcely recognize them thus crowded together upon this shortened and modified axis. We here take our first lesson in the very interesting study of morphology, or the science of the changes of form to which the parts of a plant are subjected, in the production of flowers and fruit, from what were otherwise the source of shoots and leaves. This will be found one of the most interesting branches of the study of botany, as it leads us to the investigation of one of the most beautiful displays of Divine power, and, like all such studies, gives us more and more elevated views of the exalted wisdom and benevolence of an All-wise Creator, who has produced nothing in vain, and who, while creating worlds and systems of the greatest magnificence, has condescended to prepare the most tiny flower, and its previous bud, in the most perfect manner.