bunches of fruit in embryo. The sap being thus
thin and watery, for want of due exposure to the
sun, pushes on with amazing quickness, the
shoot elongating itself on the surface of the wall,
much more rapidly than it otherwise would do,
thereby forming long-jointed wood, not one bud
of which will be sufficiently matured to produce
fruit ; the principle of growth having been in
full operation, but that of maturation having
remained dormant. But, if the shoot be trained
on the wall, and exposed to the full power of the
solar rays, in the manner already mentioned, the
sap, by being warmed, becomes thickened, or,
as it is termed, inspissated, in which state it ac-
cumulates at the joints of the shoot, and expends
itself in the formation of fruit-buds. In this
case the principles oi growth and of maturation,
will have been in active co-operation.
I have had good grapes produced from buds,
formed as late as the beginning of September in
a favourable season, and also from shoots trained
within three inches of each other, as well as on
aspects considerably north of the eastern and
western points of the horizon ; but as there is
some degree of uncertainty attached in these
cases, they are rejected in the rule, lest the
practical operation of it, might, in some instances,
be productive of disappointment.
