GRAFTING BY APPROACH OR INARCHING. 261 



covered by the scion, is coated over with grafting wax. The pot contain- 

 ing the plant is then plunged in heat, and closely covered with a bell- 

 glass, which must be taken off and wiped every second day, and left 

 off an hour or two, if at any time the plants appear too moist. Side- 

 grafting and inarching are also employed by those who practise the 

 greffe touffee, more especially in autumn. After the scion is inserted 

 and bound close to the stock, the pot containing the stock is half 

 buried in a horizontal position, on a bed of dry tan, or dry moss ; and 

 the grafted part covered with a bell-glass, stuffed round the bottom 

 with tan or moss, so as to prevent any change of air taking place 

 within the bell-glass. The graft is kept thus closely covered for from 

 two to four weeks, according to the season, when the scion will, in 

 general, be found perfectly united to the stock. Air is now admitted 

 by degrees ; and after a week or two more, the glass is removed 

 altogether, the pot set upright in a gentle heat, and the upper part of 

 the stock neatly cut off close above the scion. There is yet another 

 species of grafting, which may be denominated bud-grafting, and is the 

 best for most evergreens, such as daphnes, &c. When the stock has 

 begun to grow vigorously, cut the head off, and, making an incision 

 in the bark a few inches down, open it on both sides, in the same way 

 as for budding ; prepare the graft without a tongue, and insert the 

 lower part as you would a bud, leaving the herbaceous-growing top 

 green above. Soft succulent evergreens, in which the bark opens 

 freely, will do better in this way than any other. 



Grafting by Approach or Inarching. 



Grafting by approach differs from grafting by detached scions in 

 the scion or shoot not being separated from the plant to which it 

 belongs, and by which it is nourished, till a union takes place. For 

 this purpose it is necessary that the two plants which are to form the 

 scion and the stock be planted, or, if in pots, placed adjoining each 

 other, so that a branch of the one may be easily brought into close 

 contact with the stem, or with a branch of the other. A disk of 

 bark and alburnum is then removed from each at the intended point of 

 union, and the parts being properly fitted to each other, so that the 

 inner barks of the respective subjects may coincide, as in the case of 

 grafting by detached scions, they are bandaged and covered with clay 

 or grafting wax. This being done, in a short time, in consequence of 

 the development of cambium, the alburnum of the scion and that of 

 the stock become united, and the scion may be cut off below the point 

 where it is united with the stock, leaving the former to be nourished 

 only by the latter. This kind of grafting is the only sort that takes 

 place in nature, from the crossing of the branches of trees (more especi- 

 ally where they are crowded together in hedges), when, by the friction 

 between them, the alburnum is laid bare, and if a season of repose 

 takes place when the sap is rising, the parts adhere and grow together. 

 This is not uncommon in beech-trees, and in beech and hornbeam 

 hedges ; and it is even occasionally imitated by art in young hedges of 

 these, and of several other kinds of trees or shrubs, in order to make a 



