FOREIGN NOTICES. 



437 



tJttAr*T!Nti Humbugs. — One of the most learned 

 writei-s in the art of graftinjj, M. Thouin, who 

 has taken the pains to count up, and classify, and 

 rhristen, all the different styles of grafting, call- 

 ing them after this fasliion a la Banks, a la Bvf- 

 fon, to the number of forty dilferent varieties, 

 enumerates last the Virgiiian graft ; this was thus 

 effected ; a hole was bored across the diameter of 

 a walnut tree, and a vine branch was passed 

 through it while yet in connexion with its parent 

 stern ; after a little time the branch was cut off, 

 and it was said it would then be found united to, 

 and growing upon, the walnut. This has been 

 very properly questioned, not as to the fact, but 

 as to the nature of the union. It was not a true 

 graft; the wood of the tree may have supplied 

 nutriment to the branch, not by union of its ves- 

 sels, but by the decay of the ))art.s surrounding it. 

 From the nature of the ease, such a union could 

 be but short lived. This may therefore furnish us 

 with a clue to the explanation of some of the mon- 

 strous vegetable unions which the perverted in- 

 genuity of man has endeavored to effect. We are 

 not, however, to consider our ancestry as the sole 

 perpetrators of these various freaks; they prevail 

 even to the present day. The traveller in Genoa 

 or in Florence may without any difficulty, beyond 

 the pecuniary one, probably of some magnitude, 

 become the fortunate possessor of a tree alrao.st 

 as wonderful as those of which casual notice has 

 been taken. In a classically-formed flower-pot 

 vou see a plant of some size, and of a graceful 

 but most anomalous appearance. On this side 

 you would say it was a jasmine, heavily laden 

 with odoriferous flowers ; on the other it is a rose 

 blushing with thickiy-clustcred blossoms; and, 

 again, on the third aspect, it is a honeysuckle 

 bursting with sweet-smelling buds. Stranger still! 

 look at the stock, and by the leaves of the few 

 branches which it is allowed to put forth, you are 

 ready to believe it to be either a myrtle, or, as 

 the case may be, an orange or a pomegranate. 

 Of course this is a mere cheat, spite of the ear- 

 nest asservations of the horticulturists, wlio pro- 

 test that the various plants are all grafted upon 

 the common stock of the orange or myrtle. But 

 it is a cheat of a most ingenious kind, such as 

 would perhaps scarcely be discovered by any but 

 an acute and botanical eye. This lusus of art is 

 thus made: the " stock,"of myrtle or other plants 

 is headed, cut down to a proper size, and then 

 tenderly bored with an auger right through its 

 middle until tiie instrument comes out at the roots, 

 when it is withdrawn. The thin and flexible 

 stems of three young and thriving plants of jas- 

 mine, rose, and honeysuckle, are passed up to- 

 gether through the now hollow stock, until their 

 summits emerge at the top of it: the four plants 

 are then carefully potted in a good-sized pot, with 

 a rich compost around their roots. With much 

 care, in time, an elegant compound plant makes 

 its appearance ; the horizontal enlargement of the 

 three enclosed stems forces them into such close 



proximity, that they wear all tlie appearance of 

 being united into a common stem, and in this con- 

 dition at the flowering period, they are exposed 

 for sale, and fetch good jirices as triumphs of hor- 

 ticultural skill, not over the obstinacies, but actu- 

 ally over the laws of nature! It was no doubt by 

 some such trick as the preceding that the wondei- 

 loving eye of Evelyn was deceived when he was 

 shown the rose grafted on the orange tree, and 

 the Plinian marvel had doubtless its origin in a 

 similar inirenuitv. 



Grafting Grain. — Some attention has lately 

 been paid to the possibility of grafting Monocot}^- 

 ledonous plants, and amongst others, experiments 

 have been made on grasses. The results, as stated 

 in a notice in the " Annales des Sciences Natu- 

 rclles," for Sept., 1846, are so curious, that, with- 

 out at all pledging ourselves for their accuracy, 

 we cannot resist the wish to call the attention of 

 our readers to the subject. Much has been done 

 to improve the produce of some of our cereal 

 grasses, but perhaps in general, at least in wheat, 

 the bulk ha.s been more affected than the quality. 

 The Bristol Red, for instance, is extremely pro- 

 ductive, but millers are very shy of huy-ing, on ac- 

 count of its coarseness ; and bakers who are so 

 unfortunate as to receive (lour made from it, are 

 sure to be loud in their complaints, as it imbibes 

 so little water, proliably from deficiency of gluten. 

 The great point is, if possible, to combine in- 

 creased bulk withcjuality, and it would be at least 

 worth trying some experiments in this direction, 

 similar to those which we proceed to notice. 



Signor Calderini, of Milan, commenced his 

 experiments in 1843. Having observed that 

 grasses have at each knot a shoot inclosed in the 

 sheath of the leaf, which can be easily drawn out 

 when the plant is young, he introduced some of 

 these into jjlants of the same species, having pre- 

 viously removed iheir young shoots, and found 

 that more than half of them succeeded. He then 

 extended his operations to grasses of different spe- 

 cies, and succeeded in grafting Panic on Millet. 

 The only diOerence observable in the grafted 

 individuals was, that they ripened their seed 

 ratlier later. 



He then conceived the notion of improving the 

 vigor of species by grafting delicate and tender 

 Varieties on robust stocks, more capable of con- 

 tending against changes of temperature. Having 

 observed the vigorous growth of Panieum Crus 

 Galli in the rice fields, he replaced the young 

 shoot or bud of the grass with that of rice, and 

 found the grains produced by the grafted plant 

 much larger than those of ordinary spikes. These 

 grains were then sown, and he had the pleasure 

 of seeing them from the first sprout more vigor- 

 ously, and, in the sequel, quite free from the dis- 

 ease called brusone, whicli is so frequent in newly 

 turned up fields, while ordinary grain sown in the 

 same soil was less productive, and the plants dis- 

 eased. The difference, both in the hei<rht of the 



