212 PFRMINENT JttJUSERIES. 



from 1 to 2 of clay or clayey loam. The addition of a little finely- 

 chopped stiff hay diminishes still further the risk of the clay crack- 

 ing and falling off. The composition should be made at least a 

 week before it is used and thorough mixture should be secured by 

 frequent turning and beating with mallets. It should not Le 

 allowed to get dry before use. Besides grafting clay there are 

 various preparations of what is called Grafting Wax. Firminger 

 in his ' Manual on Gardening in India " gives an excellent recipe 

 for one as follows : 



"Take 27 oz. of common yellow resin and melt it gradually, so 

 as not to drive off the turpentine. When reduced to the thick- 

 ness of a syrup, add ten ounces of alcohol. Shake them thorough- 

 ly together and pour them at once into a well-stoppered bottle. 

 When the graft is inserted and tie;l in its place with a strand of 

 matting, cover the surface of the whole with this varnish with a 

 small painters' brush. Such varnish is affected neither by heat, 

 cold, nor wet." 



Grafting clay possesses several decided advantages over graft- 

 ing wax. Firstly, being put on moist, it can gradually, and there- 

 fore with no risk of deluging and injuring the exposed cells, restore 

 to the scion all the moisture it has lost while being worked on the 

 stock. Secondly, being itself capable of being kept moist, it can 

 supply moisture to the scion as long as this latter is still unable to 

 obtain as much as it requires from the stock. Thirdly, it prevents 

 rapid and wide fluctuations of temperature better than any wax 

 can. Fourthly and lastly, however thickly it may be laid on, soil 

 is a natural pre:ervative of wounded vegetable surfaces. On the 

 other hand, clay cannot always be used in grafting small delicate 

 plants, and, as it is net elastic, unless it is taken off soon after per- 

 fect union between scion and stock has taken place, it is likely to 

 prevent, by compression, the stem from increasing in diameter at 

 the line of junction, where this increase is indeed most required. 



Grafting is impossible unless the scion and stock are closely 

 related, i. e. are varieties of the same species, or species of the same 

 genera, or genera of the same natural order. The power of co- 

 ale-cence does not extend beyond this last degree of affinity. 



Besides this, the species to which the scion and stock belong 

 should be able to attain more or less the same diameter at one and 

 the same age. Any great disparity in this respect generally re- 

 sults in the object itself of the grafting being defeated. 



One or more of the following ends may bo sought in grafting: 

 to propagate a variety or species that cannot otherwise be 



