PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING, ETC. 247 



the white beam-tree will grow in almost pure chalk, where no pear-tree 

 would live ; but grafted on the white beam-tree, the pear, on a chalky 

 soil, will thrive and produce fruit. 



8. To introduce several kinds on one kind. Thus one apple or pear- 

 tree may be made to produce many different kinds of apple or pear ; 

 one camellia a great many varieties ; one British oak all the American 

 oaks ; and even one dahlia several varieties of that flower. 



9. To render dioecious trees monoecious that is, when the tree 

 consists of only one sex, as in Negundo, some maples, the poplar, 

 willow, Maclura, Salisburia, &c., to graft on it the other sex, by which 

 means fruit may be matured, a knowledge given of both forms of the 

 species, both forms introduced into small arboretuins, and in the case 

 of fruit-trees and ornamental shrubs, such as the pistacia and aucuba, 

 the necessity of planting males rendered no longer requisite. 



10. The last use which we shall mention is that of renewing the 

 heads of trees. For example, if a forest or fruit-tree is cut down to 

 the ground, or headed in to the height of ten or twelve feet, and left to 

 itself, it will develop a great number of latent buds, each of which will 

 be contending for the mastery ; and the strength of the tree, and the 

 most favourable part of the season for growth, will be in some degree 

 wasted, before a shoot is singled out to take the lead; but if a graft is 

 inserted either in the collar or stool, or in the amputated head, it will 

 give an immediate direction to the sap, the latent buds will not be 

 excited, and the whole concentrated vigour of the tree will be exerted 

 in the production of one grand shoot. 



The different kinds of grafting may be classed thus: grafting by 

 detached scions or cuttings, which is the most common mode ; grafting 

 by attached scions, or, as it is commonly termed, by approach or 

 inarching, in which the scion, when put on the stock, is not at all, or 

 is only partially, separated from the parent plant; and grafting by 

 buds, in which the scion consists of a plate of bark, containing one or 

 more buds. The stock on which the scion is placed is, in every case, 

 a rooted plant, generally standing in its place in the garden or nursery ; 

 but sometimes, in the case of grafting by detached scions, taken up and 

 kept under cover while the operation is being performed. The two 

 first modes of grafting are performed when the sap is rising in spring ; 

 and budding chiefly when it is descending in July and August. Under 

 particular circumstances, however, and with care, grafting in every 

 form may be performed at any period of the year. 



The materials used in grafting are the common knife for heading 

 down stocks; the grafting-knife and budding-knife (fig. 194); ligatures 

 of different kinds for tying on the scions, and grafting clay or grafting 

 wax for covering them. The ligatures in common use are strands of bast 

 matting, or of other flexible bark ; but sometimes coarse worsted thread 

 is used, or occasionally shreds of coarse paper, or cotton cloth, covered 

 with grafting wax. The dried stems of the common Sparganium 

 ramosum, the Bur-reed, are now very generally used in France for 

 grafting purposes in fact, they are considered the best material for 

 this purpose. When bast mat is used, it may be rendered waterproof, 



