CHAP. IT.] GRAFTING. 81 



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 bud or two above the graft 

 for the new shoots to spring from; as other- 

 wise the proprietor will rind his trees changed 

 as if by magic, and instead of choice kinds 

 only the common sorts left. A rather droll in- 

 stance of this happened some years ago, in the 

 neighbourhood of London. An ignorant gar- 

 dener 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 dismay, that the choice 

 camellias had all vanished, and that he had 

 nothing 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 m 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 fit each other. 

 One piece is then fitted on the other as ex- 

 actly as possible ; 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 corresponding parts of 

 the other; and on the exactness with which 

 this is done, the neatness of appearance of 



G 



