58 PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



ing the laws themselves give us very little aid in determining 

 what the cause and nature of this affinity really is. In M. Bal- 

 tet's ' Art of Grafting ' (a first-rate and very exhaustive work, by 

 the way, which every cultivator should read), the following re- 

 marks on this subject are made : " The laws of the affinity of 

 species are almost unknown. The observations hitherto made 

 have been undertaken in a practical rather than in a purely scien- 

 tific spirit, as in the fertilising of plants. The results obtained 

 up to the present can only be regarded as a matter of fact. No 

 theory has as yet been deduced from them except that kinds 

 to be united must be of the same botanic family. For 

 instance, the Peach and the Apricot are grafted on each other 

 with difficulty, while both do well on the Almond-tree and the 

 Plum-tree. All the Cherries unite with the Mahaleb, but it 

 will not succeed as a graft on any of the Cherries. The Sweet- 

 Chestnut prospers on the Oak, but will not do so if grafted on 

 the Horse-Chestnut, which belongs to another family. The 

 Medlar and the Quince, which have solitary flowers, flourish 

 on the Hawthorn, whose flowers are in corymbs. The 

 Chionanthus, so nearly allied to the Lilac by its panicled 

 flowers and simple leaves, only succeeds well on the common 

 Ash and on the flowering Ash, which have compound leaves. 

 On the other hand the Sorbus, with pinnate leaves, is more 

 vigorous when grafted on the Thorn (whose leaves are more 

 entire) than it is when grown on its own roots. The grafting 

 of evergreen trees on deciduous kinds presents more than one 

 singularity. The Photinia, allied to the Beam-tree, and the 

 Eriobotrya (Loquat), allied to the Medlar, are grafted on the 

 Medlar and not on the Hawthorn. On the last, as a stock, 

 the Cotoneaster and the Pyracantha do well. The Mahonia 

 flourishes on the Berberis, and the common Laurel succeeds 

 on the Bird Cherry, and even on the Wild Cherry, from which 

 it differs so much in appearance." But while some ever- 

 greens succeed well on a deciduous stock, " the grafting of 

 deciduous plants on those that are evergreen has in almost 

 every case been attempted in vain. Those who are fond of 

 oddities can, with the assistance of grafting, have on the same 

 Thorn stock at the same time fruiting-branches of the Pear, 

 the Medlar, the Beam-tree, the Service-tree, the Mountain- 

 Ash, the European and Japanese Quince, and also see there 

 'the flowers of the Double and Red Thorns, the Cotoneaster, 

 and the Pyracantha. They may gather from the same Plum 

 stock, Plums, Apricots, Peaches, Nectarines, Almonds, the 

 corymbs of the Canadian Cherry, and flower garlands of the 

 Chinese and Japanese Plum ; but these whimsicalities are 



