52 NATURE TEACHING 



that the tree he has raised does not produce fruit of such 

 good quality as the tree from which he obtained the 

 seed, or that the ornamental plant obtained has not the 

 character which made the parent of value. It is there- 

 fore important to know of methods by which plants can 

 be propagated and retain the characters of the plants 

 from which they are derived. This is secured by 

 planting cuttings and by budding and grafting : the 

 plants raised by these methods retaining perfectly the 

 characters of the original plants. It thus follows that 

 when a new and desirable variety of plant has been 

 secured from amongst the varying characters exhibited 

 by seedlings, the cultivator can produce a large number 

 of plants possessing the desirable characteristics of the 

 selected variety by propagating it by means of cuttings 

 or by grafting or budding. 



It will be readily understood that budding and 

 grafting can only be successfully practised with plants 

 possessing a cambium, the absence of a cambium zone 

 making these operations impossible in other plants. 

 Budding and grafting are successful only when the two 

 plants operated upon are nearly related, thus the various 

 varieties of apples may be grafted on one another, and 

 the different kinds of roses grafted on other roses, but 

 an apple cannot be grafted on a rose, or a rose on a 

 cherry. 



Plants possess the power of healing up wounds, such 

 as are made when a branch is sawn or broken off, 

 gashes made in the stem, etc. The cambium plays an 

 important part in this process also, and under favourable 

 circumstances the whole wound may become covered 



