BOOK XVII. XXVI. 1 19-122 



little square of bark on the side and then forcinsf in 

 the shoot. We have secn beside the Falls of Tivoli rnnotis 

 a tree that has been grafted in all these ways and '"■"■''"'!'*• 

 was laden with fruit of every kind, nuts on one 

 branch, berries on another, vhile in other places 

 hung grapes, pears, figs, pomegranates and various 

 sorts of apples ; but the tree did not Hve long. And 

 nevertheless it is impossible for us by our experi- 

 ments to attain to all the things found in Nature, as 

 some cannot possibly come into existence except 

 spontaneously, and these only occur in wild and unin- 

 habited places. The tree most receptive of every 

 kind of graft is believed to be the plane, and next 

 to it the hard-oak, but both of these spoil the flavours 

 of the fruit. Some trees, for instance the fig and 

 the pomegranate, can be grafted in all the different 

 methods, but the vine does not admit scutcheons, 

 nor do trees that have a thin bark or one that peels 

 off and cracks ; nor do trees which are dry or contain 

 only a little sap admit of inoculation. Inoculation 

 is the most prolific of all methods of grafting, and 

 grafting by scutcheon comes next, but both are 

 verv subject to displacement ; and a graft that reUes 

 on the support of the bark only is very speedily dis- 

 lodged by even a light breeze. Grafting by inscrtion 

 is the firmest, and produces more fruit than a tree 

 grown from planting. 



We must not omit one extremely exceptional case. orafitaken 

 In the territory of Naples a Knight of Rome named [™;;' '"'"' 

 CoreUius, a native of Este, grafted a chestnut with 

 a sUp cut from the tree itself, and this is how the 

 celebrated varicty of chestnut tree named after 

 him was produced. Subsequently his freedman 

 Tereus grafted a CoreUius chestnut again. The 



85 



