PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING. 45 



and, for dwarfing, P. Mahaleb. For apricots, seedlings of 

 the wilding apricot, with the muscle and Brussels plum. 

 For peaches and nectarines, seedlings of the muscle, white 

 pear-plum, and Damas noir plum, the almond, and the 

 wilding peach. 



Stocks are commonly divided into two classes, viz., free 

 stocks and dwarfing stocks. The former consist of seed- 

 ling plants, which naturally attain to the same size as the 

 trees from which the cions are taken. The latter are plants 

 of diminutive growth, either varieties of the same species, 

 or species of the same genus as the cion, which have a ten- 

 dency to lessen the expansion of the engrafted tree. The 

 Paradise or doucin is the usual dwarfing stock for apples, 

 the Quince for pears, the Bullace for plums, and Prunus 

 Mahaleb (Cerasus Mahaleb, or sweet-scented cherry), for 

 cherries. The nature of the soil in which the grafted trees 

 are destined to grow should also have weight in determin- 

 ing the choice of stocks. When the garden is naturally 

 moist, it is proper to graft pears on the quince, because 

 this plant agrees with a moist soil, and at the same time 

 the luxuriance thereby produced is checked by the stock. 

 In France, peaches are commonly budded on almond stocks 

 to adapt them to the dry soils of that country. The seeds 

 from which stocks are to be raised are generally sown in 

 beds in March ; but the germination of some kinds is pro- 

 moted by placing the seed for a time, in damp sand in a 

 green-house. Next season the seedlings are transplanted 

 into nursery rows, in which they are allowed to reach the 

 size necessary for the various forms of fruit-trees hereafter 

 to be mentioned. 



The cion is always a portion of the wood of the preceding 

 year. As the diseases incident to fruit trees are apt to be 

 transmitted by this mode of propagation, it is desirable 



