. The American fruit culturist : containing directions for the propagation and culture of fruit trees in the nursery, orchid and garden : with descriptions of the principal American and foreign varieties cultivated in the United States . Fruit-culture. CHAPTER II. LEADING PRINCIPLES IN THE GROWTH OF TREES — CIRCULATION OF THE SAP. During the growth of a tree, a most interesting process is going on, which should he well understood hy every one engaged in cultivation. The sap enters from the soil into the spongioles, or the minute spongy extremities of the finely-branched fibres ;* it passes up
. The American fruit culturist : containing directions for the propagation and culture of fruit trees in the nursery, orchid and garden : with descriptions of the principal American and foreign varieties cultivated in the United States . Fruit-culture. CHAPTER II. LEADING PRINCIPLES IN THE GROWTH OF TREES — CIRCULATION OF THE SAP. During the growth of a tree, a most interesting process is going on, which should he well understood hy every one engaged in cultivation. The sap enters from the soil into the spongioles, or the minute spongy extremities of the finely-branched fibres ;* it passes up these fibres or fine roots, through the thousands of minute tubes or sap vessels, (which are minuter than the smallest hair,) Until united into the larger roots; the union of these little currents of sap some- what resembling that of the innumerable rills which con- stitute a large river. On reaching the trunk or stem, it flows upward through the myriads of little vessels in the alburnum or sap-wood, and reaching the branches, becomes again subdivided through them, , and is sent out into all the ex- tremities of the smallest shoots. A young apple tree an inch in diameter, consists of about one million of these little sap-tubes united together, and a single one- year shoot contains more than ten thousand. The annexed figure represents a greatly magnified cross-section of a small portion of a peach-shoot, showing the sap* vessels. Passing up the leaf-stalks from the shoots, the sap emerges for the Cross-section of the sap-vessels of a first time to the light, through the young shoot of the peach, greatly . . .& ' . 5 magnined—; ; c,pith. innumerable microscopic veins * For a magnified representation of a spoogelet, see p. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Thomas, J. J. (J
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookpub, booksubjectfruitculture
