BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 117 



"For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by 

 nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree ; 

 how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be 

 grafted into their own olive tree ?" 



It is more than probable that the first idea of grafting origiuated 

 or was suggested by natural inosculation of branches growing 

 close together in a thicket, whereby the action of the wind, at 

 certain times of the year, had rubbed off the bark of each tree, as 

 you see quite often at the present day, and in a season of calm 

 the two cambiums had been pressed together, had united, and 

 firmly grown together, thereby becoming as one tree. Afterward 

 the original top on one side or the other may have become separ- 

 ated from its own stem and root, and the tree or shrub may have 

 borne two kinds of fruit at the same time. I do not mean by this 

 that if the trees had been of two different species they would have 

 become united, but they might have been closely allied species ; 

 for instance, a pear may have become inarched, in this natural 

 way, on another pear; a mountain ash on a thorn; a plum on a 

 peach or almond ; or two distinct species of plum or its varieties 

 on nearly related genera. "We often see today nurserymen bud- 

 ding or grafting on the peach, plum, or almond, the different spe- 

 cies of Prunus, such as P. tovientosa, P. Amygdahis, P. Japonica, 

 P. triloba, and others too numerous to mention. However this may 

 be, the art of grafting was practised by gardeners at a very early 

 period. Macrobius, a Roman author of the fifth century, says 

 that the art was taught by Saturn to the inhabitants of Latiura. 

 It does not appear to have been known to the Persians or to the 

 Greeks in the time of Homer ; and, according to Chardin, was not 

 known to the Persians in his day (1643-1715). Grafting, it is 

 said, was not known to the Chinese till very lately, when it was 

 taught t© a few of their gardeners by the missionaries, and to the 

 natives of Peru and other parts of South America by the 

 Spaniards. Some, however, infer from a passage in Manlius, and 

 one in Democritus, that grafting may have been mentioned in 

 some of Hesiod's writings which are lost. Pliny speaks of the 

 mulberry growing on the briar, but whether blackberry 

 or raspberry does not appear. The Romans propagated trees 

 by the same methods now in common use in nurseries ; fruit 

 trees were generally grafted or inoculated. Vines, figs, and 

 olives were raised from cuttings, layers, and suckers; willows 



