INTRODUCTION xxxix 



scions will govern. Nevertheless, it is probable enough, 

 that if you can get a scion to grow upon a stock of another 

 kind, that is much moister than his own stock, it may 

 make the fruit greater, because it will yield more plentiful 

 nourishment ; though it is like it will make the fruit baser. 

 But generally the grafting is upon a drier stock ; as the 

 apple upon a crab, the pear upon a thorn, &c. Yet it is 

 reported, that in the Low Countries, they will graft an apple- 

 scion upon the stock of a colewart, and it will bear a great 

 flaggy apple, the kernel of which, if it be set, will be a cole- 

 wart, and not an apple. It were good to try whether an 

 apple-scion will prosper, if it be grafted upon a sallow, or 

 upon a poplar, or upon an alder, or upon an elm, or upon 

 an horse-plum, which are the moistest of trees. I have heard 

 that it hath been tried upon an elm and succeeded. 



It is reported also that a citron grafted upon a quince 

 will have small or no seeds ; and it is very probable that 

 any sour fruit grafted upon a stock that bareth a sweeter 

 fruit, may both make the fruit sweeter and more void of the 

 harsh matter of kernels or seeds. 



By those who would pursue further the comparative 

 study of " imping " (as William Lawson and his con- 

 temporaries called it) evidently begotten from the 

 German Impfen, to inoculate ; begetting in turn our 

 word " imp," a graft or off-shoot of Satan interest- 

 ing historical references may be found in Crescentiis, 

 Baptista Porta, Parkinson, Leonard Meager's " Arte 

 of Planting and Grafting," in William Lawson, and 

 in Evelyn's translation of De Quintinye's " Fruit 

 Gardener/' ; as well as in Switzer, Philip Miller, 

 Dr. Gibson, Forsyth, and innumerable later writers. 



