Grafting and its effects on trees 151 



decayed wood and above the Common Ozier, not half as 

 pretty as it is in its natural growth. If our planting 

 were confined to garden planting it might then be 

 possible to control this, but the moment we begin to 

 plant in any right and bold way we must get out of the 

 garden, and watching every tree for suckers is hope- 

 less. A very little trouble would have sufficed to put 

 this graceful Weeping Willow on its natural roots, 

 which would have been a good state for its natural life ; 

 but now I not only lose my trees, but have to grub up 

 many Oziers out of place, which is not by any means an 

 easy task. 



Among the most beautiful medium-sized trees of the 

 great Rose family are the Thorns ; whether for flower, 

 colour, or fruit in autumn, or for their forms, they are 

 very beautiful, and none the less so for their relation- 

 ship to our common May, though differing from it in 

 their times of flower and in many ways in effect. No 

 trees produce seed more freely than these, but owing to 

 the facility of grafting in nurseries where we buy them 

 they are nearly all put on the common native kinds, on 

 which are also grafted the double and coloured varieties 

 of our own country. Those growing on the parent 

 plant are safe enough, but when we come to graft the 

 various American and Asiatic kinds on the British tree 

 a different result comes about : the native Thorn gradu- 

 ally becomes the master, and instead of a collection of 

 interesting trees we find that we have simply one 

 common kind. There is a difference of season and time 

 of starting the saps, which may be the cause ; but what- 

 ever it is, it is a vicious system to put quite hardy trees 

 from countries quite different from ours to grow on 

 other plants. The simple result of doing so is that 



