PENETRATION OF SCION BY STOCK 



G. B. Patvardhan 

 Assistant Professor of Botany, Agricultural College, Poona, India 



DURING a casual observation of 

 a few rose plants growing in 

 my compound, in the month of 

 August, 1917, I happened to 

 notice one budded plant with 5 shoots 

 emanating from the region where the 

 original bud was inserted on the stock. 

 The scion is a Paul Neron rose. The 

 plant was originally grown in the Ganesh- 

 khind Botanical Gardens, Kirkee, 

 India. The bud was inserted on a 

 one-3^ear-old stock about the month 

 of February, 1916. The scion was 

 pruned once about the month of 

 April, 1917. On a very careful exami- 

 nation of the five shoots, it was found 

 that the center one, which was older, 

 thicker and riper than the rest, was the 

 original scion and three of the remain- 

 ing four were shoots which clearly 

 showed the characters of Edward rose. 

 Two of these shoots 2, and 3, when I 

 first noticed them, showed one flower 

 each, which was undoubtedly our com- 

 mon Edward rose, while the center 

 one, about a week later, showed a bud 

 which was quite similar to that of a 

 Paul Neron. It is regrettable that the 

 fully expanded flower from this bud 

 was, however, pilfered away by some- 

 body before the flower could be ob- 

 served by me. The plant was taken 

 to the Agricultural College and shown 

 to Dr. Burns, Economic Botanist to 

 the Government of Bombay, before 

 photographing, which was done on 

 September 8, 1917, just before the bud 

 appeared. The flowers of the Edward 

 rose dropped their petals during transit 

 to the college for photographing. 



ORIGIN OF SHOOTS PROBLEMATICAL 



The question of interest is — how did 

 four shoots of the stock appear from 

 the budwood of the scion? Usually 



vigorous outgrowths from the stock 

 appear below the point of insertion of 

 the scion and these are usually rubbed 

 away, so that any depletion of the 

 supply of sap to the scion is prevented 

 and all that is sucked up by the stock, 

 is available for the use of the scion. 

 In this case the shoots of the Edward 

 rose are about 9 or 10 weeks old (by 

 August-September, 1917). They seem 

 to be derived from adventitious buds 

 which might have appeared on the 

 stock below the budwood, even after 

 latter had become well established and 

 forced their way through the tissue of 

 the scion. An examination of the 

 photograph shows that the shoots 

 have clearly originated from the bud- 

 wood within the area of the callus 

 formed at the margin of the slit made 

 for budding, and not from any doubtful 

 region such as the margin of the slit or 

 elsewhere closer. 



I am adding the following after 

 observing the plant for a month and a 

 half since noting the above. Shoots 

 Nos. 2 and 3 flowered again on Octo- 

 ber 25, 1917. The flowers were Edward 

 roses. This confirms previous state- 

 ment regarding shoots Nos. 2 and 3. 

 Shoot No. 1 has grown very long and 

 vigorously. It is expected to flower 

 in the next few days and confinn its 

 nature. 



From the comparative vigor of 

 growth, I conclude that Nos. 1, 2 and 3 

 are shoots of Edward roses derived 

 from the stock and No. 4 is Paul Neron, 

 which has made no further growth 

 since first photographing. Similarly 

 No. 5 also has made no further growth, 

 both being held in check by the supe- 

 rior power of Edward shoots of drawing 

 or sucking up more sap than could be 

 done by the scion from the stock. 



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