Fy 
60 GRAFTING. 
graving of a flowering = grafted on a common ash, and growing at 
Leyden; by which it is shown, that an architectural column with its 
plinth and capital may be formed in a living tree, where there is a 
decided difference in the growth of the stock and the scion. 
These examples show that no intimate union takes place between 
the scion and the stock; and the fact is, that though they grow toge- 
ther and draw their nourishment from the same root, they are in 
every other respect perfectly distinct. The stock will bear its own 
leaves, flowers, and fruit, on the part below the graft; while the scion — te ; 
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is bearing its leaves, flowers, and fruit, which are widely different, on 
the part above the graft. Nay, five or six grafts of different species — 
on the same tree, will each bear a different kind of fruit at the same 
time. This want of amalgamation between the scion and the stock 
is particularly visible in cases of severe frost, when the former is 
more tender than the latter; as the graft is frequently killed without 
the stock being injured. It is also necessary when grafted trees are 
for any reason cut down, to leave a portion above the graft for the 
new shoots to spring from; as otherwise the proprietor will find his 
trees changed as if by magic, and instead of choice kinds only the 
common sorts left. A rather droll instance of this happened some 
years ago, in the neighbourhood of London: an ignorant gardener 
having a conservatory full of very choice Camellias, and wishing to 
reduce the plants to a more compact shape, cut them down for that 
purpose; when in due time he found, to his great confusion and dis- 
may, that the choice Camellias had all vanished, and that he had no- 
thing left but a number of plants of the common single red on which 
they had been grafted. 
The proper season for grafting is in spring, generally in March and 
April; in order that the union between the scion and the stock may 
be effected when the sap is in full vigour. At this season a stock is 
chosen of nearly the same diameter as the scion, whether that stock 
be a young tree, or merely a branch; and they are both cut so as to 
fiteach other. One piece is then fitted on the other as exactly as possi- 
ble; and if practicable, it is contrived that the different parts, such as 
the bark, soft wood, and hard wood, of the one, may rest on the cor- 
responding parts of the other; and on the exactness with which this is 
done, the neatness of appearance of the graft depends. It is not, 
however, essential to the success of the operation, that all the parts 
of the scion should fit exactly on the corresponding parts of the stock 
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