ABOUT GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 71 



versation not long ago with a gentleman whose opinion is 

 entitled to consideration, I found him inclined to believe 

 that there were some few exceptions to what had been 

 admitted to be a general law, and in support of his argu- 

 ment he referred me for exceptions to Darwin's " Plants 

 and Animals under Domestication." I have examined 

 this work, and find but few cases wherein it is claimed 

 that the graft is influenced by the stock, or the stock by 

 the graft. At page 413, vol. i., is cited one of the most 

 important, that of the Cytisus Adami, produced, it is 

 claimed, by grafting the Cytisus purpurea on the Cytisus 

 Laburnum. This so-called " graft hybrid" repeatedly 

 showed its drooping racemes of flowers to be blended yel- 

 low and purple on the same raceme, and again, on the same 

 plant, racemes clear yellow and clear purple unblended 

 were produced. Again at page 457, vol. i., where " Prof. 

 Caspary describes the case of a six-year-old white Moss 

 Rose, which sent up several suckers, one of which was 

 thorny and destitute of moss, exactly like those of the Pro- 

 vence Rose (R. centifolia), while another shoot bore both 

 kinds of flowers, and in addition longitudinally striped 

 flowers. As this white Moss had been grafted on the 

 Provence Rose, Prof. Caspary attributes the above changes 

 to the influence of the stock ; but, from the facts already 

 given, and from others to be given, bud variation with 

 reversion is probably sufficient explanation ; " and Dar- 

 win proceeds to give nearly a dozen cases of like variation 

 where there was no grafting at all. A very marked case 

 of this " bud variation " recently occurred in my own 

 greenhouses. In a bed of about one hundred plants 

 of the Tea Rose "La Nankin," all made from cuttings 

 from one parent plant, we have had four distinct varie- 

 ties. The original flower or bud has its base or lower 

 half of a nankeen yellow color, while its upper half is 

 pure white, the separate colors being clearly defined ; yet 

 among our plants from cuttings we have some flowers 



