GRAFTING AND BUDDING, 215 



lobes. Besides this, the whole is held together by a bandage, the shield in particular 

 with its bud being pressed firmly on to the new substratum, and thereupon, as a 

 rule, coalescence takes place at once, and the inserted bud grows out into a branch 

 which stands in exactly the same relation to the stock as a Loranthus to the oak 

 whereon it is parasitic. All the branches belonging to the substratum, that is to 

 say, to the wild stock, may then be removed, leaving only the one branch that has 

 sprung from the stranger-bud, the result being that all the juices absorbed from the 

 ground by the substratum are concentrated in this branch and cause it to grow 

 with the greatest exuberance. 



There is between this process of budding and the settling of a parasite a further 

 resemblance in that shrubs and trees cannot all be made to unite at pleasure one 

 with the other. A successful result of grafting or budding can only be counted 

 upon when nearly allied species, belonging to the same genus or family, are 

 employed for the purpose. Almonds, peaches, apricots, and plums can be grafted 

 the one upon the other; so also can quinces, apples, pears, medlars, and white- 

 thorns. But we must relegate to the realms of fiction such assertions as that 

 peaches might be successfully grafted upon willow stocks, or that the Siberian Crab 

 (Pyrus salicifolia) has sprung from the grafting of branches of the Pear upon the 

 Willow and other tales of the sort. Whether it is possible by grafting or budding 

 to produce new forms, or at least hybrids, is a question which will claim our 

 attention in connection with the problem of the origin of new species. The only 

 additional remark to be made here is that notwithstanding the undeniable simi- 

 larity between grafted or budded plants and the parasitic Loranthaceas, a very 

 essential difference exists in the circumstance that the latter develops roots which 

 continue to grow year by year, and are always penetrating into new layers of the 

 host's tissues, whereas this is never observed in the case of grafted or budded 

 plants. When the branch of a Peach is grafted on an Almond-tree, there is, it is 

 true, an organic union of the two at the place of contact, and the juices from the 

 wood of the Almond stock are conducted direct into the grafted Peach-branch; but 

 neither roots nor sinkers ever arise from the base of the adnate branch or penetrate 

 into the stem of the Almond-tree. 



