28 ON GRAFTING. 



stock in rapid succession, and almost every individual operation suc- 

 ceeds. An amateur, at least a ti,ro in the art, takes infinite pains, 

 and spends as much time iu one attempt as -would suffice for the 

 practised band to finish off ten, perhaps twenty subjects, yet fails in 

 toto. Thus it happens, year after year, even with the wise, the 

 phvsiologist. who is intimately acquainted with the rationale of the 

 processes : expectation, labour, disappointment, are the companions 

 and fruit of his zeal, and thus accounts are balanced, for the pride of 

 science is humbled by the greater adroitness of the routine "prac- 

 titioner. 



After this moralizing, we are not going to write a disquisition on 

 the philosophy of grafting and inoculation ; books and treatises on 

 the subject abound to profusion, and are very useful, if not abused. 

 But there is one peculiar variety of the art of grafting, of recent in- 

 troduction, which must as yet be little known to domestic gardeners; 

 and as it is extremely ingenious will, if successively attempted, not 

 only amuse, but gratify and instruct : the season also is most suitable 

 to it, and no time should be lost. 



The Camellia has rarely succeeded with independent grafting or 

 budding by the usual processes ; but if inarching be carefully per- 

 formed, the object is generally attained. There are great objections, 

 however, to it, as has been long remarked, for the shrubs are bent 

 and strained to deformity. 



Ingrafting, the juices of the stock should be moving; therefore, 

 every plant of the single red, which is to be grafted, should imme- 

 diately be placed in a frame or moist stove, where the heat, by fire 

 or dung, is not under sixty degrees, and be there retained till the 

 leaf-buds evidently enlarge. Small plants, ten or twelve inches 

 high, with good heads and healthy foliage, and having main stems 

 about one fourth of an inch broad at the surface of the soil, are 

 adapted to operation. 



The double varieties which are to furnish the grafts ought to be 

 excited also, till the buds become in the proper condition. 



If old plants be selected, the graft must be chosen from among the 

 upright and strongest shoots, for the great object is to obtain one ter- 

 minal growing bud at the apex of the last year's wood, which 

 approaches most nearly in breadth to that of the stock. 



It will appear from what has been said, that a strong young 



