340 



GKAFFITI 



GRAFTING 



Graffiti ( Ital. graffito, 'a scratching' ), or WALL- 

 SCRIBBLINGS, the name given to certain classes of 

 mural inscriptions and drawings found at Pompeii, 

 Rome, and other ancient cities in Italy. They are 

 generally scratched, with a stylus or similar sharp 

 instrument, or scrawled, with red chalk or charcoal, 

 on walls, door-posts, and portico-pillars, and seem 

 to be the Avork of idle schoolboys, loungers, triflers, 

 and the like 'do-nothing' folk; but some were 

 executed with more serious intention. Accordingly 

 we find that the subjects that oftenest occur are 

 doggerel verses, quotations from the poets, amatory 



\SAAM 



Fig. 1. Specimen of Graffiti A uge amat Arabienum 

 ( ' Auge is in love with Arabienus ' ). 



effusions, names with opprobrious epithets attached, 

 coarse and often obscene words and figures, rude 

 caricatures, especially of gladiators, of which fig. 2 

 is a specimen, and other instances of the thousand 

 and odd ways in which the impulses of the restless 

 idler prompt him to express his fancies. Amongst 

 the more serious examples there are electioneering 

 admonitions, playbills, and similar public announce- 

 ments, philosophic apophthegms, notices of house- 

 hold events, time-tables of domestic work, and ex- 

 clamations and sentences of even tragic import. 

 These scribblings and rude drawings derive import- 

 ance from the fact that, like Punch and similar comic 

 journals, they serve as an admirable index to the 

 current life of the people, especially in Pompeii, 

 where the greatest number of them have been dis- 

 covered. Without them we should have a far less 

 adequate idea of the street-life of the ancient 

 lloman people. They also throw much light upon 



the phraseology 

 and idiom of the 

 vernacular 

 spoken towards 

 the end of the 1st 

 century A. D. in 

 the cities of 

 southern' Italy. 

 Three languages, 

 or rather three 

 alphabets, were 

 used Latin, 

 Greek, and 

 Oscan. Of these 

 Latin was much 

 the most com- 

 monly employed. 

 In Rome graffiti 

 have been found 

 on some of the 

 great buildings 

 of the ancient 

 city, as the Palace 

 of the Caesars, 

 Nero's Golden House, and tombs on the Via 

 Latina, as well as in the Catacombs. These last 

 consist for the most part of lists of mere names, 

 pious prayers and wishes, and invocations to the 

 martyrs. The first collection of graffiti from 

 Pompeii was published by Bishop Christopher 

 Wordsworth in 1837, and is reprinted in his Mis- 

 cellanies (1879). All that have been discovered 

 and published up to the present time are to be 

 found in vol. iv. of Corp. Inscr. Lat. (1871, edited 

 by Zangemeister under the title Inscriptiones 

 Parietarice Pompeiance, Herculanenses, et Stabiance ) 

 and the supplementary volume. The inscriptions 

 in the Oscan characters, of which there are two 

 varieties, as there likewise are of both the Greek 



Fig. 2. Gladiator. 



and the Latin, are not contained in the collections 

 just quoted ; but they will be found in Fiorelli's 

 Inscr. Oscar um Apographa (1854). Compare also 

 Garrucci's Graffiti de Pompei (Paris, 1856), and 

 Edinburgh Review, vol. ex. 



Grafrath, a town of Rhenish Prussia, 12 miles 

 E. by S. of Diisseidorf, with cotton and iron manu- 

 factures. Pop. (1890) 6679. 



Grafting, a mode of propagation applicable to 

 all kinds of trees and shrubs, and even herbaceous 

 plants whose tissues are firm. The operation con- 

 sists in the inserting of a branch or bud (scion) of 

 one tree into some part of another tree (stock), so as 

 to bring about a union of the two. The practice of 

 grafting is doubtless one of great antiquity, and its 

 origin may in all probability be traced to a natural 

 process which is of frequent occurrence. It has 

 been observed that, when two branches of a tree 

 or branches and even the stems of kindred trees 

 growing closely together overlap and touch each 

 other, the bark becomes wounded or abraded, and 

 the returning juices exuding from the ruptured 

 vessels in the Alburnum (q.v.) produce granula- 

 tions by which a perfect incorporation of structure 

 is effected, and the parts become one. The object 

 of grafting is, first, to perpetuate and increase the 

 stock of varieties and sun-varieties of fruit-trees, 

 the innate qualities of which cannot be transmitted 

 with certainty to their progeny by seeds, and which 

 would be more slowly and less surely multiplied by 

 any other artificial mode of propagation ; secondly, 

 to increase and accelerate the fruitfulness of fruit- 

 trees for, the elaborated sap being impeded in its 

 descent at the junction of the scion with the stock, 

 the process of maturation is thereby promoted, and 

 fertility more largely and quickly induced. Old 

 and unfruitful trees, whose stems and roots are 

 vigorous and healthy, may be rendered fruitful in 

 the course of two or three years by having their 

 tops cut back and re-grafted with scions from a 

 fruitful and healthy tree. Grafting is also em- 

 ployed for the purpose of dwarfing fruit-trees, while 

 at the same time abnormally increasing their fruit- 

 fulness. This is attained partly by the selection of 

 a stock which exerts a restrictive influence on the 

 scion, and by double grafting i.e. grafting twice 

 or oftener at will. Very young trees are thus 

 rendered prodigiously fruitful, and are in demand 

 for the purpose of pot culture and planting in 

 orchard -houses. Trees damaged by wind or other- 

 wise have their injuries repaired by grafting, and 

 those that are unequally balanced may be brought 

 to perfect symmetry by the judicious insertion of 

 scions in the ill-furnished parts. 



In grafting it is particularly to be attended to 

 that the alburnum of the scion is brought into con- 

 tact with that of the stock. The hard wood of the 

 one never unites with that of the other, remaining 

 separate and marking the place of the operation 

 even in the oldest trees. For scions or grafts, 

 pieces of about six to eight inches long are generally 

 taken from the shoots of the previous summer, with 

 several buds ; but portions of shoots of two years old 

 are sometimes successfully employed. The time 

 for grafting is in spring, as soon as the sap begins 

 to appear. The scion should, if possible, be taken 

 from a healthy and fruitful tree, but scions from 

 the extremities of lateral branches are more likely to 

 become speedily fruitful than those from the upper- 

 most branches, where growth is most vigorous. 

 The scion should be kept for a few days before 

 grafting, so that the stock may rather exceed it, 

 not only in vigour, but in the progress of its 

 spring growth; and for this purpose it may be 

 placed in the ground, in a rather dry soil, sheltered 

 from the direct rays of the sun. Scions may be 

 kept for some time, and easily carried to a distance, 



