GRAFTING BY DETACHED SCIONS. 



257 



especially climbers. The greatest care is requisite to prevent any 

 particles of soil from getting in between the scion and the stock, 

 for which purpose the upper part of the latter is sometimes washed 

 with water before the operation is performed. The roots of thorns, 

 pears, and crabs, as already observed, are frequently grafted in- 

 doors, and taken out and planted so deep, that only the upper 

 part of the scion appears above ground. Another mode where 

 a thorn hedge is taken up, or a row of seedling pear or crab stocks is 

 transplanted, and a portion of the roots left in the soil, is to graft on 

 them where they stand, and afterwards to earth-up the graft a mode 

 which would doubtless be very successful. 



Herbaceous-grafting is applicable either to the solid parts of her- 

 baceous plants, or to the branches of ligneous plants when they are in 

 a herbaceous state. By this method the melon has been grafted 

 on the cucumber, the tomato on the common potato, the dwarf 

 French bean on the scarlet-runner, potatoes on each other, the 

 cauliflower on the broccoli and the borecole ; . and on the tender growing 

 shoots of various forest trees, and of azaleas and other shrubs, hardy 

 and tender, allied species have been successfully grafted. This mode 

 has been extensively employed for many years past in the forest of 

 Fontainebleau, in grafting the Pinus Laricio on the P. sylvestris ; and 

 many hundreds of plants of pines and firs of different kinds, and of 

 Indian azaleas, have been so propagated at Fromont. Many trees 

 were thus grafted by Baron Tschoudy in the botanic garden at 

 Metz, and on his own estate in the neighbourhood ; and these and the 

 pines at Fontainebleau prove this mode of grafting to be particularly 

 applicable to the Abietinae. 



Grafting the Pine and Fir Tribe. The proper time for grafting 

 pines is when the young shoots have 

 made about three-quarters of their length, 

 and are still so herbaceous as to break 

 like a shoot of asparagus. The shoot 

 of the stock is then broken off about two 

 inches under its terminating bud, the 

 leaves are cut or clipped off from twenty 

 to twenty-four lines down from the ex- 

 tremity, leaving, however, two pairs of 

 leaves opposite- and close to the section 

 of fracture, which leaves are of great 

 importance to the success of the graft. 

 The shoot is then split with a very thin 

 knife between the two pairs of leaves 

 (fig. 214), and to the depth of two inches ; 

 the scion is then prepared (6), the lower 

 part being stripped of its leaves to the 

 length of two inches is cut and inserted 

 in the usual manner of cleft-grafting. 

 They may also be grafted in the la- 

 teral manner (c). The graft is tied 



s 



Fig. 2U. 



Herbaceous-grafting the pine and 

 fir tribe. 



