ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWEES A2fD FAEinXG. 301 



way for transmission — and not like the lea^ a laboratory for 

 its preparation ! * 



We may be reminded that a stocky in point of fact, does 

 influence the fruit. It is indisputable that pears are changed 

 on quince roots. The Wilkinson^ grafted upon the quince, 

 is smaller, more prolific, higher flavored, and of a brighter 

 red cheek than if grafted on the pear. The Duchesse d'An- 

 gouleme is larger and better on the quince than on its own 

 roots. But what is the influence in this case? When a free- 

 grower is put upon a slow-grower, the point of junction 

 becomes a point of comparative obstruction to the return- 

 sap. It is only a wholesome process of ringing, or decor- 

 tication. Lindley says : 



" When pears are worked upon the wild species, apples 

 upon crabs, and peaches upon peaches, the scion is, in regard 

 to fertility, exactly in the same state as if it had not been 

 grafted at all: while, on the other hand, a great increase 

 of fertility, is the result of grafting pears upon quinces, 

 peaches upon plums, apples upon the thorn, and the 

 like. • In these cases, the food absorbed from the earth 

 by the root of the stock is communicated slowly." And 



* Loudon (Encyclopaedia of Gardening, p. 448), has the following 

 remarks : 



" The bark is the medium in which the proper juices of the plant, in 

 their descent from the leaves, are finally elaborated and brought to the 

 state which is pecuUar to the species. From the bark these juices are 

 communicated to the medullary rays, to be by them deposited in the 

 tissue of the wood. The character of timber, therefore, depends chiefly 

 upon the influence of the bark: and hence it is that the wood formed 

 above a graft never partakes, in the slightest degree, of the nature of 

 the wood below it. The bark, when young and green, like the leaves, is 

 supposed, like them, to elaborate the sap, and hence may be considered 

 as the universal leaf of a plant. 



These views corroborate the reasoning above, although Loudon 

 extends the functions of the leaf to the bark. We have not been able, 

 in our limited range of books, to find any other authority for this state- 

 ment, respecting the " young and green bark." 



