SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 207 



-please upon all sorts of trees." Evelyn in his "Pomona," in commenting 

 on Columella's claim to the invention of this method of inarching says, "it 

 was no news to Varro who wrote two hundred years before Columella." 

 From the fact that Varro was born in the year ]16 B. C. this tends to show 

 how very ancient the art of grafting is. 



Virgil and Pliny wrote of apples on the plane tree, chestnuts on beeches, 

 and oaks on elms, and these erroneous notions have been repeated by other 

 writers down to a comparatively recent period. The earliest objection to 

 the theory of grafting " any kind of cion on all sorts of trees," I am able to 

 find is in Sir Hugh Piatt's work "The Garden of Eden," published in 1659, 

 and his objection is only in reference to the apple, plum and pear. Evelyn 

 in his " Pomona," published in 1706, follows Sir Hugh. I quote from the 

 " Pomona " : "And here we note from Palladius, that the ancients had the 

 success which we all, and particularly Sir H. Piatt does so frequently deny, 

 as in the particular of graffing the apple on the pear, and contra. Let us 

 hear him, de Porno." 



"The grafted crab its bushy head does rear, 

 Much meliorating the inserted pear ; 

 Its self to leave its wilderness does invite, 

 And in a nobler issue to delight." 



Prof. Thouin, of Paris, has been long engaged in making experiments in 

 grafting. He says that plants, widely apart in character, may sometimes 

 ■ appear to take, but they all perish more or less promptly. This subject of 

 limitation is one of the important parts of practical horticultural science: it 

 is not subject to general laws, and stands an open question awaiting study 

 and experiment. The influence of cion on stock and stock on cion is a topic 

 for me to pass lightly over. I know nothing of it, and, after studying the 

 literature of the subject, I am in confusion over opposite results and antago- 

 nistic theories. I think it will be safe to say (as of the subject of limitation) 

 little is known concerning it. Examples of a reciprocal influence between 

 stock and cion are not wanting, but the reasons deduced leave the impression 

 that here too is an open field for investigation. Lord Bacon says: "The 

 compounding or mixture of kinds in plants is not found out, * * * wherefore, 

 it were one of the most noble experiments touching plants to find it out; for 

 so you may have great variety of new fruits, and flowers yet unknown, graft- 

 ing doth it not. That mindeth the fruit or doubleth the flowers, but it hath 

 not the power to make a new kind, for the cion ever over-ruleth the stock." 



Phillip Miller, author of the "Gardener's Dictionary," is decided in his 

 statement that the fruit is influenced by the nature of the stock. He says : 

 ' ' Crab stocks cause apples to be firmer, to keep longer, and to have a sharper 

 flavor." He is also authority for the statement that gritty and stony fruit 

 results from grafting the breaking pear on quince stocks, while the melt- 

 ing pears are improved on the same stocks. We graft the apple on the para- 

 dise stock to dwarf it, and for the same purpose the pear is grafted on the 

 quince. The mountain ash grows more rapidly when grafted on thorn than 

 on its own roots. In these cases the stock is the smaller tree, but in the case 

 of the mountain ash the result is reversed, and instead of dwarfing an in- 

 crease in size occurs. 



The examples of change in size, color, and flavor of fruit by grafting are 

 numerous. Mr. Knight cites an instance of taking two cions from the same 

 apricot tree, grafting one upon an apricot, and the other upon a plum. 



