MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE STOCK AND GRAFT. 139 



to cause two half-buds, one of each sort, to unite into one sprout. Mr. 

 Chaffee has tasted sweet-and-sour apples from trees said to be thus pro- 

 duced. The apples were Rhode Island Greening on one side and some 

 sweet variety on the other. A number of trees are mentioned that bear 

 these sweet-and-sour specimens. Five years ago Mr. Chaffee grafted a 

 number of trees in this way, out of which three united, the united scions 

 sending up a single vigorous shoot. One of these has fruited, and has 

 borne apples half sweet and half sour, but unlike either of the two sorts 

 united to form the new graft." The editor adds: the old sweet-and-sour 

 apple (the sour part resembling the Rhode Island Greening), is a peculiar 

 variety, well known more than fifty years ago. It is a belief with some 

 that it was produced by united buds, but this belief has never been estab- 

 lished. 



Thomas Meehan of Pennsylvania communicated the following in a 

 paper on " Graft Hybrids," at a meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, in 1876:" " During the past few years it has 

 been asserted that new varieties of potato have originated in this way : A 

 tuber is taken, and all the eyes cut out; a wedge with an eye of another 

 kind is then inserted into the eyeless mass and planted. The results are 

 said to be true hybrids. Many of our best physiologists doubt this. I 

 have not seen these cases; but I must say that the evidence afforded is 

 much stronger than much of that on which some popular theories have 

 been built. I tried the split and grafting process, not believing it would 

 result in hybridity. I merely wished to test the popular notion. I am 

 pleased to be able to say now that it is correct. New varieties can be 

 obtained in that way. I took the Rhode Island Greening and the Red 

 Astrachan— two very distinct varieties of apple in every respect. The 

 grafts, with a single bud, were split as near through the center as possible, 

 and a piece of each kind fitted together so as to appear one complete scion. 

 Twelve of these were grafted; three grew; two of these have fruited; 

 neither are Rhode Island Greening, and the two are unlike each other. 

 One of these has a flower like the Rhode Island Greening; and the flower 

 of Red Astrachan is rosy and in many ways distinct from the large white 

 one of the Rhode Island Greening; but the fruit is, in many respects, 

 similar to that of the Red Astrachan. The second variety has the flower 

 similar to that of the Rhode Island Greening, and the fruit somewhat the 

 color of the Red Astrachan, ripening about the same time, but is but half 

 the size, very much flattened, and with a slender stem near two inches 

 long, and as much like that of a Siberian Crab as can be. There is no 

 doubt but two varieties distinct from the parents, and distinct from each 

 other, have resulted from this graft process." In the same journal, for 

 1881, page 90, it is stated that one of these graft hybrids still remained, 

 bearing fruit like Red Astrachan and flowers like Greening. 



In 1876 the Gardeners' Monthly (page 308), published an account of a 

 sour-and-sweet apple tree said to have been produced by " inculcating a 

 young tree with a half of two buds taken respectively from sweet and sour 

 apple trees and firmly joined together before inoculation." 



Thomas Meehan, the editor, adds: " We know now that buds can be 

 united, and the result is the blending of characters, forming a new indi- 

 vidual kind — a true hybrid — but the experiments so far made do not favor 

 the idea that two distinct characters can be made to run along separately 

 in one tree." 



1 The Garden, vol. X, 1876, p. 350. 



2 Proceedings A. A. A. S., 1876, p. 254; Gardenerb' Monthly, 1876, p. 306. 



