BUDDING. 51 



descent of nourishment. Another is to raise the 

 bark all on one side of the slit, making a small 

 notch in the edge of the bark for the bud, this 

 mode being supposed to avoid the bad consequences 

 of the mutilation of the wood by the knife. But 

 these modes are both inconvenient, and are found 

 to possess no advantage in practice ; the supposed 

 evils they are intended to obviate being too small 

 to take into account. 



Budding is performed in summer, grafting in 

 spring, and both have their advantages. Budding 

 is a simpler operation and more successfully per- 

 formed by a novice. It is also the best means to 

 multiply the peach and nectarine, grafting very 

 rarely proving successful. But it requires in all 

 cases thrifty stocks. In England, where most fruit 

 trees do not make so rapid a growth as here> bud- 

 ding is less esteemed; while from the moisture of 

 the climate preserving grafts from dying, grafting 

 becomes more successful. 



In former ages of the world, it was supposed 

 that grafting, the origin of which is hid in the ob- 

 scurity of antiquity, could be performed between 

 every species of tree and shrub. Roses, it was 

 said, became black when grafted on black currants, 

 and oranges crimson if worked oh the pomegranate. 

 But the operation is never successful unless the 

 graft and stock are nearly allied, and the greater 

 the affinity the more certain the success. " Varie- 



