16 



four of the Apple, five of Pears, Pomegranetes, Services, six 

 varieties of Fig, three of Nuts, Quinces and Plumbs. It is 

 not alone, the number of varieties of Fruit, that demonstrates 

 their attention to Fructiculture, the details of their practice in 

 cultivating them, speaks as decidedly in support of that opi- 

 nion. In speaking of moving the Olive among other direc- 

 tions, he says, *' the earth that was upon the surface should 

 be put next the roots ;" now although they knew nothing of 

 the surface soil being most abounding in Oxygene Gas, 

 and for that reason to be of benefit when applied to the 

 roots of plants, it demonstrates the care and attention be- 

 stowed upon the culture of Fruits, for the benefit had been 

 noticed. In his directions for Grafting, I find none that are 

 omitted by modern writers ; though terse he is sufficiently ex- 

 plicit. If it is true, as Cato, Varro, Palladius, Virgil, Colu- 

 mella, Pliny, and a host of other writers, even more ancient 

 as well as contemporary agree, that they had the Art of 

 grafting one kind of Tree, upon others of entirely different 

 Genera, as Apples upon Plane Trees, the Vine on the Cherry, 

 &c. &c. they certainly excelled the Gardeners of the present 

 age, for this branch of the Art is lost to us. They held it as 

 a maxim generally to be relied upon, that any tree might be 

 grafted upon another which had a bark similar in appearance ; 

 if the Fruit also had a resemblance there was not a doubt of 

 the success.* It must not however be forgotten that the 

 same author in his Treatise *' On Trees," has a chapter in 

 support of this promiscuous grafting, in opposition to some 

 ancient Authors, who denied the practicability of the Art, so 

 that even in those days there were doubts, which needed no 

 refutation but a practical exhibition of success. Pliny and 

 Columella give the necessary directions for Inoculating. 

 Cato dwells upon the importance of frequently stirring the 

 earth about the Roots of Trees ; the various modes of raising 

 layers, as by passing up a shoot through a hole made in the 



* Columella V. 2. 



