82 POPULAR ERRORS. 



fable. We know how such results were sometimes 

 produced to astonish the curious. Pliny tells how 

 old trees were hollowed out, and the stems of vines 

 and young trees drawn up through the centre and 

 made to emerge at the top and appear as though 

 they were grafted there. 



Another fallacy of grafting is the belief that two 

 scions of different varieties may be split through 

 the center and united together, and that when so 

 united they will grow as a single stem, combining 

 the characteristics of both varieties. Darwin 

 quotes, without fully endorsing them, a number of 

 cases of this kind. In one of these, two hyacinth 

 bulbs were divided through the center and the 

 opposite halves joined, and they were said to grow 

 up united stems bearing both kinds of flowers. 

 Darwin says that he has seen stems bearing two 

 kinds of flowers, but that he has never been suc- 

 cessful in uniting split grafts of any kind. In 

 this country the apple called Sweet- and sour is 

 supposed by some to have been produced by 

 uniting the scions of sweet and sour varieties. 

 Thomas Meehan, of Pennsylvania, tried such an 

 experiment, and satisfied himself that it could be 

 done. Twelve scions were prepared, consisting of 

 one- half Greening and the other half Bed Astra- 

 chan. They were grafted in the usual way and 

 three of them grew, producing flowers and fruit 



