CHAPTER VII 



The Use of Synthetic Growth- Substances in Graftings 

 in Producing Bud-Inhibition, and Other Operations 



When a tree is grafted into another at the time of a certain 

 conjunction of sun and moon, and is fumigated with certain 

 substances whilst a formula is uttered, that tree will produce a 

 thing that will be found exceedingly useful. . , . — Moses 

 Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (trans. M. Fried- 

 lander) as quoted by S. Tolkowsky, Hesperides (London: John 

 Bale, Sons & Curnow, 1938). 



Grafting ; Rooting of Grafted Woody Cuttings 

 In view of the earliness of the demonstration {e.g., Laibach 

 (1935, A) ) that a synthetic substance such as indole-acetic 

 acid applied in a lanolin paste may hasten or improve the 

 formation of wound-callus, it is rather surprising that so few 

 investigations on the application of the artificial growth- 

 substances to practical grafting have been published. So late 

 as the spring of 1939, a discussion of the possibility of grafting 

 olives on to an Abyssinian stock plant was made, in which 

 there was nothing but surmise concerning the mutual effects of 

 the natural hormones of stock and scion and of an artificial 

 growth-substance, if one were used (Tallarico (1939) ). It is 

 not, of course, to be expected that in the present state of plant- 

 physiological knowledge any sound predictions regards such 

 mutual effects could be made for any plant; still less could 

 they be made for this almost unknown stock. The reason for 

 mentioning this discussion is that it quoted no previous work, 

 in spite of the fact that its author came from Rome, where the 

 library facilities are excellent. One would suppose a priori that 

 the lanolin smear method would be peculiarly suitable for 

 grafting operations, though this suitability has been recently 

 denied. 



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