238 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
This third form, unhappily, only exists on the mother plant as a dead 
branch. It is possible that I have cut this branch a little too severely, in 
taking shoots for grafting. But, fortunately, the grafts have established 
themselves very well, so that I shall be able to study this form. 
This year I have been able to establish two new phenomena not pre- 
viously noticed. Form No. 1 has given birth to a young branch which 
is the true Medlar (flower solitary). On the same form a twig, bifurcated 
at a short distance from its point of insertion, has given, on one side 
a Whitethorn inflorescence, and on the other a corymb of eight Medlar 
flowers. It is probable that every year I shall be able to record new 
developments. 
What should be concluded from this extraordinary disassociation? In 
my humble opinion all the changes are due, without a doubt, to the 
influence of the graft (Medlar) on the stock (Whitethorn). The inter- 
mediate forms which have issued therefrom, and which I possess as 
vigorous plants two years old, secured by grafting, cannot logically be 
otherwise designated than by:the name of Hybrids, unless, indeed, a more 
special designation be adopted for crossbreeds obtained by grafting. 
If the name of hybrid should be applied to them, it will be necessary 
in botanical treatises to rectify the definition of this name and set forth 
the different sorts of hybrids thus: (1) those arrived at through the seed, 
and (2) those obtained by grafting. It is for the pen of an authority to 
settle this point. 
Several times already I have remarked facts confirming the influence 
of the graft upon the stock. As to the inverse case, that is to say, the 
influence of the stock on the graft, I have never observed it, although 
it may also be produced, as is shown by the experiments made by 
M. Daniel, doctor of science, professor at the Lyceum of Rennes, experi- 
ments which he reported to the Pomological Congress of Rennes in 1897, 
and subsequently at the Horticultural Congress of Paris in May 1898. 
This year, in the nurseries at Plantiéres, on a common Birch, there was 
produced a branch with laciniated leaves: this Birch had been grafted this 
spring, with a variety with laciniated leaves, but the graft had failed. 
The sport is produced far below the point where the graft had been 
inserted; a fact which astonishes me, since, in the analogous cases above 
cited, and especially with Maples, transformed branches spring from a 
point in close proximity to the graft, if not immediately below it. 
The charming Cornus alba Spaethi, so well known in cultivation, is 
the issue—though few horticulturists know it, even among those who 
cultivate extensively this superb shrub with margined foliage—of a branch 
which arose, at the base of the grafting point, upon a Cornus alba 
grafted on Cornus alba fol. arg. marg. 
The raiser of this variety, M. Spaeth, whom I consider to be one of the 
most distinguished among German nurserymen, distinctly attributes this 
variation to the influence of the graft upon the scion. 
The following fact, extracted from the Bulletin of the Horticultural 
Congress held at Brussels in April 1864, simply confirms what I have 
advanced above. 
M. Dr. Rodigas, at the time when he was directing the Horticultural 
department connected with the Normal School of Lierre, had grafted a 
