14 PROPAGATION. 



In the case, however, of very small trees or stocks, which are 

 grafted below the surface of the ground, as is frequently the 

 practice with the Apple in American nurseries, the stocks are 

 grafted in the house in winter, or early spring, put away care- 

 fully in a damp cellar, and planted out in the spring ; but this 

 method is only successful when the root is small, and when the 

 top of the stock is taken off, and the whole root is devoted to 

 supplying the graft with nourishment. 



The theory of grafting is based on the power of union between 

 the young tissues, or organizable matter of growing w^ood. When 

 the parts are placed nicely in contact, the ascending sap of the 

 stock passes into and sustains life in the scion ; the buds of the 

 latter, excited by this supply of sap and the warmth of the sea- 

 son, begin to elaborate and send down w^oody matter, which, 

 passing through the newly granulated substance of the parts in 

 contact, unites the graft firmly with the stock. " If," says De 

 Candolle, " the descending sap has only an incomplete analogy 

 with the wants of the stock, the latter does not thrive, though 

 the organic union may have taken place ; and if the analogy be- 

 tween the albumen of stock and scion is wanting, the organic 

 union does not operate , the scion cannot absorb the sap of the 

 stock and the graft fails." 



Grafting therefore is confined within certain limits. A scion 

 from one tree will not, from the want of affinity, succeed on every 

 other tree, but only upon those to which it is allied. We are, in 

 short, only successful in budding or grafting where there is a 

 close relationship and similarity of structure between the stock 

 and the scion. This is the case with varieties of the same species, 

 which take most freely, as the difi"erent sorts of Apple ; next with 

 the diff"erent sj^ecies of a genus as the Apple and the Pear, which 

 grow, but in which the union is less complete and permanent ; 

 and lastly with the genera of the same natural family, as the 

 Cherry on the Plum — which die after a season or two. The 

 ancients boasted of Vines and Apples grafted on Poplars and 

 Elms ; but repeated experiments, by the most skilful cultivators 

 of modern times, have clearly proved that although w^e may, 

 once in a thousand trials, succeed in efi'ecting these ill assorted 

 unions, yet the graft invariably dies after a few months' growth.* 



The range in grafting or budding, for fruit trees in ordinary 



* The classical horticulturist will not fail to recall to mind Pliny's account 

 of the tree in the garden of Lucullus, grafted in such a manner as to bear 

 Olives, Almonds, Apples, Pears, Plums, Figs, and Grapes. There is little 

 doubt, however, that this was some ingenious deception — as to this day the 

 Italian gardeners pretend to sell Jasmines, Honeysuckles, &c., growing to- 

 gether and grafted on Oranges and Pomegranates. This is ingeniously 

 managed, for a short-lived effect, by introducing the stems of these smaller 

 plants through a hole bored up the centre of the stock of the trees — their 

 roots being in the same soil, and their stems, which after a little growth 

 fill up these holes, appearing aa if really grafted. 



