GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 53 



7. When plants are grown from seed they 

 often differ very markedly from the parent- 

 plant which produced the seed. This varia- 

 tion, whilst a useful feature when the grower 

 is seeking for new forms of plants or striving 

 to obtain improved varieties, is one which is 

 not welcome to the cultivator who sows seed 

 and wishes to raise a crop on the character of 

 which he can rely. It is still more important 

 in connection with fruit or other trees which 

 take some years in coming to maturity, for it is 

 naturally very disappointing to the grower to 

 tind that the tree he has raised does not pro- 

 duce fruit of such good quality as the tree from 

 which he obtained the seed, or that the orna- 

 mental plant obtained has not the character 

 which made the parent of value. It is there- 

 fore important to know of methods by which 

 plants can be propagated and retain the char- 

 acters of the plants from which they are 

 derived. This is secured by planting cuttings 

 and by budding and grafting ; the plants raised 

 by these methods retaining perfectly the char- 

 acters of the original plants. It thus follows 

 that when a new and desirable variety of plant 

 has been secured from amongst the varying 

 characters exhibited by seedlings the cultivator 

 can produce a large number of plants possess- 

 ing the desirable characteristics of the selected 



