266 BUDDING OR GRAFTING BY DETACHED BUDS. 



state is joined to that of the year before. A disk or shield from which 

 the visible bud has been removed will also succeed, and the latent buds 

 may remain dormant for years, and yet be developed afterwards. In 

 the year 1824 several buds were placed on the branches of a fig-tree, 

 and, from some accidental cause, though the shield adhered in every 

 case, yet most of the visible buds were destroyed, and only one of the 

 latent buds was developed. Twelve years afterwards, when the fig-tree 

 received a severe check, in the winter of 1837-8, the development of a 

 second latent bud from one of the shields took place. When the bud 

 is placed on the stock, its point is almost always made to turn upwards, 

 as being its natural position; but in budding the olive, and other trees 

 which are liable to gum, the bud is made to point downwards, and the 

 success is said to be greater than when the common mode is adopted. 

 There are two seasons at which budding is practised, viz.: when the 

 sap rises in spring, when the bud inserted is developed immediately, 

 in the same manner as in detached ligneous scions ; and in the middle 

 of summer, when the sap is descending, the operation being then per- 

 formed with a bud formed during the same summer, which often 

 forms a shoot at once and sometimes remains dormant till the following 

 spring. The French often use the former method for inserting fruit- 

 buds where they are scarce, and so skilfully is the operation per- 

 formed, that the fruit generally comes to perfection. In budding, the 

 stock is not generally cut over in the first instance, as in grafting by 

 detached ligneous scions ; but a tight ligature is frequently placed above 

 the graft, with the intention of forcing a part of the ascending sap to 

 nourish the graft. 



The uses of budding, in addition to those of the other modes of 

 grafting, are, to propagate some kinds with which the other modes of 

 grafting are not so successful, as, for example, the rose, peach, plum, 

 and all stone fruits. To perform the operation of grafting with greater 

 rapidity than with detached scions, or inarching, as in the case of most 

 fruit-trees and roses ; to unite early vegetating trees with late vegetating 

 ones, as the apricot with the plum, they being both in the same state of 

 vegetation during the budding season ; to graft without the risk of 

 injuring the stock in case of want of success, as in side-budding, and in 

 flute-budding without heading down ; to introduce a number of species 

 or varieties on the same stem, which could not be done by any other 

 mode of grafting without disfiguring the stock, in the event of the 

 want of success ; to prove the blossoms or fruits of any tree, in which 

 case blossom -buds are chosen instead of leaf-buds ; and, finally, as the 

 easiest mode of distributing a great many kinds on the branches of a 

 tree, as in the case of roses, camellias, and fruit-trees. 



In performing the operation, mild, cloudy weather should be chosen, 

 because during hot, dry, windy weather, the viscous surfaces exposed 

 to the air are speedily dried by evaporation, by which the healing 

 process is retarded ; besides, the bark never rises so well in very dry, 

 windy weather as it does in weather which is still, warm, and cloudy, 

 but without rain. The first step is to ascertain that the bark of the 

 scion and that of the stock will separate freely from the wood beneath 



