SPECIAL FUNCTIONS AND FORMS OF STEMS 91 



87. Budding and grafting. The process of budding consists 

 of detaching an uninjured bud from the stem of one plant and 

 inserting it under the bark of the stem of another plant 

 (fig. 74). Peaches and cherries are familiar examples of trees 

 commonly propagated by budding. The operation should be 

 performed at a season when the cambium layer is active, so 

 that the transplanted bud will at once unite with the wood of 



FIG. 74. Propagation by budding 



A, a bud cut from a tree of the desired variety, with a piece of the underlying 



bark ; B, the bud inserted in a T-shaped slit in the bark of the stock ; C, the same 



with the bark bound in place by strips of raffia (a fibrous material obtained from 



the leaves of the raffia palm). Modified after Percival 



the stem into which it is set. In the case of peaches, the young 

 seedling trees grown from seeds planted the same spring are 

 budded in June or September. Those budded late do not grow 

 much until the next season, but then make rapid progress. As 

 the top of the seedling is cut off not far above the bud, all 

 further growth of the shoot partakes of the quality of the bud, 

 and the fruit borne by the tree, when it is large enough to 

 bear, will be of the kind that is characteristic of the tree from 

 which the bud was taken. 



Grafting is removing a piece of stem, with its buds, from 

 one plant and inserting it into a portion of stem of another 



