Hints on Propagating the Tea Rose. 



217 



of a cactus or opuntia), and, cuttinir its base to a 

 point or u'edge, insert it in a hole or slit made in the 

 stem or leaf of another species, but of the same 

 genus. 



6. Grafting the Melon ; Grefe du Melon. (Jig. 

 IS. J — On the stem of a cucumber, or any other 

 plant of the family of Cucurbitaceee, but having some 

 analogy with the melon, choose a vigorous part of a 

 shoot having a well-developed leaf. In the axil of 

 this leaf an oblique cut is made, of half its thickness. The point of 

 a melon shoot, so far developed as to have 

 its fruit quite formed, is then cut off, and 

 pointed at its end, 2 in. below the fruit. It 

 is inserted in the cleft made in the stock, 

 always taking care to spare the leaf until 

 the cion has taken. The remaining part 

 of the operation is performed in the usual 

 manner with ligatures and grafting-wax. 

 This mode of grafting succeeds pretty well ; 

 but it has not hitherto been applied to any useful end. Tomatoes 

 may be grafted in this manner on potatoes, and it is said that potato 

 plants thus treated produce good crops both of potatoes and tomatoes. 

 Grafting-wax may be formed with turpentine, bees' wax, resin, 

 and a little tallow, melted together. It may either be put on in the 

 same manner as grafting-clay, but not more than a quarter of an inch 

 in thickness ; or it may be very thinly spread upon cotton cloth, 

 and used in shreds like sticking-plaster. In this last state it serves 

 both as a ligature for retaining the escutcheon or scion in its place, 

 and as a covering for excluding the air. In very delicate budding 

 and grafting, fine moss and cotton wool are frequently used as sub- 

 stitutes for grafting-clay or grafting-wax ; the moss or cotton being 

 tied firmly on with thread or strands of bast matting. 



Art. IV. So77te Hints on Propagating the Tea Rose, by budding on 

 hardy, strong Stocks. By J. W. Russell. 



Gentlemen, 



Perhaps there are but few flowers in the whole range of Flora's 

 dominions, so universally admired as the Rose. We become ac- 

 quainted with it in our early days, and the delicious fragrance which 

 is exhaled from this " queen of flowers," aside from its beauty, 

 make it at once a favorite ; and it never loses one particle of our 

 admiration, until life becomes extinct. 



VOL. I. NO. VI. D D 



