original tree might be prolonged to three times its natural period, by robbing it of its branches as soon as the qualities of its fruits were known, and retaining it as a pollard, or more properly in the state of shoots in a coppice which is felled at regular periods; for these are known to possess a much greater degree of durability, than the same kind of trees, when left in the natural state, and to produce a vigorous succession of branches during many centuries."
It will be seen, in the passages of the work already alluded to, that some of the operations, recommended to renew vines, bear no very distant resemblance to what is here described; and when it becomes necessary, after 25 or 30 years (to which period only the life of vines in some districts extends), to renew a plant which, without such aid, is capable of attaining the age of 600 years, there is little presumption in supposing that they are the progeny of a parent which was produced in a very remote age; and still less, in deducing the inference already stated, that the French had been led altogether to overlook their propagation by seed.
If, then, from the fickle and fugacious characters of the vine, there is a risk that a valuable variety may lose its desirable properties, when transplanted to a new climate, the gratification af-
