On Naval Timber and Arboriculture: With Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of PlantingMatthew, Patrick
Science
On Naval Timber and Arboriculture: With Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting
Matthew, Patrick
Forests and forestry -- Great Britain
“Var. 3d, Is of a still lighter colour than var. 2d, being of a light
glaucous hue, approaching to a silvery tint; its branches form, like
var. 1st, a pyramidal head, but it differs remarkably in its cones
from {66} both the former varieties; the cones of this seem beset
with blunt prickles bent backwards, the leaves serrulated. This
variety is rather more common than var. 2d; like it, it is a good tree.
“Var. 4th, The leaves somewhat curled or rather twisted, and much
shorter than the others: this variety is very rare.”
Our observation does not go to confirm these subdivisions. We think
they are little more distinct than the fair, the red[15], the black
haired, the fair, the sallow, the brown complexioned, the tall,
the short, of the same community or even family of men. There is
variation and individuality more or less strongly marked in all kinds
of organized beings: at least those vegetables which have exposed
fructification possess it; many whose fructification is secluded also
possess it; and the others of more constant character, such as some
of the Gramineæ, with a little art (removing their anthers before the
pollen bursts forth, and applying the pollen of others as near to them
in the chain of life as can be found to be different, or changing the
circumstances by culture), can also be rendered equally {67} variable.
These minor distinctions or individualities of vegetables become more
perceptible as our observation closes in upon the object. We have never
yet found one individual apple plant, raised from seed, to be the
counterpart of another; but differing even in every part and habit,
in bud, leaf, flower, fruit, seed, bark, wood, root; in luxuriance of
growth; in hardihood; in being suited for different soils and climates,
some thriving in the very moist, others only in the dry; in the
disposition of the branches, erect, pendulous, horizontal; in earliness
and comparative earliness of leaf, of flower, of fruit.
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