GRAFTAGE GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



137 



the most intricate. Because of its importance and the dif- 

 ficulties in solving its problems it has given rise to much 

 study and many theories often based on imperfect obser- 

 vations in disregard of obvious and simple facts. 



Graftage is said to be the union of a cion with a stock. 

 So far as nurseryman and fruit grower are concerned 

 this is the prime aim. Success or failure from their 

 standpoint depends upon the nature of this union. The 

 terms good and poor unions, are among the commonest 

 in horticultural parlance; yet their meaning is generally 



FIG. 121 DIAGRAMS OF GRAFT AND BUD CROSS SECTIONS 



A, cleft graft three years old; B, bud graft at three years; C, separateness of 

 cells in stock and cion. (Black parts in A and B represent stock; in C, the cion.) 



conjectured. The easy statement that stock and cion 

 grow together does not satisfy the question, How do they 

 unite ? The popular idea is that the union is like the knit- 

 ting of a broken bone, also that both stock and cion 

 produce new tissue which commingle more or less as 

 human skin does after the surgical operation of skin 

 grafting. But both these suppositions are vague and far 

 from the truth. Possibly in herbaceous grafting where 

 soft growing tissues are used there may be unions of these 

 characters, but even in such cases the blending seems to 

 be purely local ; for original stock and original cion 

 maintain their individuality each will produce fruit 

 after its kind. 



