GRAFTAGE 127 



each plant will bloom in a much shorter time than if left to 

 grow on its own roots. Seedlings of all hard wooded plants, 

 from seeds collected by travelers in foreign countries, may thus 

 be quickly brought to the flowering stage and their value de- 

 termined. 



"The most remarkable feature of the new methods lies not only 

 in their simplicity, but also in the certainty with which unions 

 result. The writer has had very few unsuccessful unions and none 

 among those classes of plants where the most suitable stocks are 

 known and in common use. Not only is it possible to inarch a 

 seedling a few weeks old to a large stock, but a moderate sized 

 seedling stock can be inarched to a shoot of a rare shrub or tree 

 having the same diameter as the stem of the seedling. A satis- 

 factory union may thus be induced where other methods of a sexual 

 propagation have invariably failed. 



"Rose seedlings resulting from variety crosses inarched when 

 from three to four weeks old on Manetti stocks have produced 

 maximum sized flowers long in advance of seedling plants growing 

 on their own roots. The rare Finger Lime, Citrus australasica, 

 sometimes seen in a dwarf, sickly condition in greenhouse collec- 

 tions, has borne fruit two years after inarching on one of its con- 

 geners; and within nine months after flowering, hybrid seedlings 

 between this Citrus and a cultivated Orange were in their turn 

 inarched on 2-year-old Lemon seedlings. 



"Very young seedlings of hundreds of other rare, hard wooded 

 plants may be worked on the same or allied species or genera, and 

 their value determined much in advance of the time when they 

 would flower on their own roots, or on plants obtained by grafting 

 or budding from the mature shoots of the seedlings. 



"Hard wooded seedlings which need to be flowered in the shortest 

 possible space of time, in order to determine their value, are used 

 for inarching as soon as the first leaves attain a fairly firm texture, 

 as, for example, in the case of the Mangosteen. Rut when seedlings 

 are used as stocks for the vegetative propagation of established 

 varieties by uniting the stocks to small branches, then larger 

 seedlings are used as, for example, in the case of the Mango. 



"Seedlings raised from seeds of new and rare trees, shrubs, and 

 vines may be induced to grow very quickly if used as cions when 

 a few weeks old, by inarching to strong-growing plants of other 

 species of the same genus, or in some cases on species of other 

 genera of the same family. This has been done recently with such 

 plants as Chestnuts, Walnuts, Hawthorns, Oaks, and many others. 

 It is not necessarily done for the purpose of hastening the flowering 



