GENERAL REVIEW. 



grafting in the 'Jour. Hort. Soc.' (new series), ii. 85, from 

 which we quote the following : " I grafted this year Red Ash- 

 leaf on Dickson's Premier, Paterson's Scotch Blue on Royal 

 Albert, and vice versa. I have been unfortunate this season in 

 regard to the taking of the grafts. I planted and kept the 

 grafted sets in six-inch pots, contrary to my later practice of 

 planting them in the open ground when the shoots in the pots 

 have pushed five or six inches out of the soil. This may have 

 tended to cause non-success as regards the cicatrisation of the 

 skins ; nevertheless sufficient results have been arrived at to 

 afford conclusive evidence as to the possibility of grafting one 

 Potato with the eye of another. On July 14 I examined two 

 sets an eye of Royal Albert (a handsome round, white potato) 

 grafted on Paterson's Scotch Blue. The eye had held perfectly 

 fast to the tuber, giving hope of some influence being exerted 

 between the stock and the graft. I made the graft fit as per- 

 fectly as possible into the wedge-shaped cavity in the tuber ; 

 but at the above date the graft had swelled out of its first 

 position, though not sufficiently so to disunite itself from the 

 cicatrix of its own skin and that of the stock on one side. I 

 gave several good tugs at the graft, but could not displace it ; 

 and I sent it to Dr Masters for verification. Dr Masters wrote : 

 ' In one case the cohesion was evident ; but I do not see that 

 the new tuber or haulm is at all affected. We must have more 

 conclusive evidence. I see the union is not merely along the 

 rinds, but in the cellular mass of the Potato as well. I have 

 forwarded the tubers to Chiswick. The whole subject is very 

 interesting.' 



" The other sort sent to Dr Masters was the eye of a Pater- 

 son's Scotch Blue grafted on Royal Albert. No cicatrix or 

 union of the skins had been formed ; but some of the young 

 tubers were half-coloured, others less coloured, and one was 

 perfectly white, none of them showing blue all over like the 

 grafted sort." 



Professor Regel of St Petersburg, and M. Bouche of 

 Berlin, both made experiments in Potato-grafting, but failed 

 to obtain any results of a satisfactory nature, no change being 

 effected except such as might be attributed to reversion. Dar- 

 win, however, has collected most of the information on this 

 subject in his 'Animals and Plants,' i. 422, from which we 

 learn that in the Royal Gardens at Berlin numerous experi- 

 ments were made by Herren Reuter and Lindemuth, who in- 

 serted the eyes of red Potatoes into white ones, and vice versa, 

 many different forms, partaking of the characters of the united 

 varieties, being the result. Dr Neubert and Mr Fitzpatrick 



