PEOPAGATION. 77 



nature with the stock, each must have cells of a similar 

 character, capable of transmitting their nutritious fluids 

 from one to the other. We must recollect likewise, that 

 the parts must be so co-apted that the cells of wood 

 growth shall be brought into as close connection as pos- 

 sible, in both scion and stock ; these cells are found in the 

 layer, called the cambium, which is between the wood and 

 the bark. The crude sap from below will often pass from 

 cell to cell, when the elaborated sap of the cells in the 

 scion is wholly unfitted for the formation of wood cells in 

 the stock below it; of course the union in such a case 

 must be very imperfect, and the product of such a graft- 

 ing will be subject to accident, and will be short-lived, 

 though the result in fruit, while the union continues, may 

 be very precocious, abundant, and of superior flavor. 



Natural grafting may often be observed by the student 

 of nature when wandering among his favorites of the 

 sylvan shades. There can be no doubt that the first hint 

 was thus communicated to the early gardeners. In nature 

 we always find the grafting to be inarching, or grafting 

 by approach ; two limbs or even two trees approximating 

 closely, have abraded one another, and have afterward 

 united their tissues most firmly together. This is gener- 

 ally a union of two trees of the same variety or species ; 

 but such is not always the case ; sometimes trees of very 

 dissimilar natures unite in this manner, but when we ex- 

 amine them we find only a dove-tailing, only a mechanical 

 union, but no vital action subsists between them. The 

 ancients give us some fancy sketches of the unions by 

 grafting of very dissimilar trees, and some moderns who 

 have no higher claim to poetry than their romancing, tell 



