INTRODUCTION. XX111 



adjusted. The success of grafting depends very much 

 upon attention to this. But there are other reasons 

 why this accuracy in adjusting the line between the 

 bark and wood of the stock and scion is so important. 

 It is at that part that the roots of the latter pass down- 

 wards over the former ; and it is also there that the 

 substance called cambium, which serves as food for the 

 young descending fibres, is secreted. It is obvious, 

 that the more accurate the adjustment of the line separat- 

 ing the wood from the bark, the more ready will be the 

 transmission of young fibres from the one to the other ; 

 and that the less the accuracy that may be observed in 

 this respect, the greater the difficulty of such transmis- 

 sion will be. Provided the stock and scion be of exactly 

 the same size, the adjustment can scarcely fail to be 

 accurate in the most unskilful hands ; it is in the more 

 common case of the scion being much smaller than the 

 stock, that this is to be most particularly attended to. 



Budding differs from grafting in this, that a portion 

 of a stem is not made to strike root on another stem, 

 but that, on the contrary, a bud deprived of all trace of 

 the woody part of a stem is introduced beneath the bark 

 of the stock, and there induced to strike root. In this 

 operation no care is requisite in securing the exact con- 

 tact of similar parts, and a free channel for the trans- 

 mission of the roots of the bud between the bark and 

 wood of the stock ; for, from the very nature of the 

 operation of budding, this must of necessity be ensured. 

 The bark of the bud readily coheres with the wood of 

 the stock, and secures the bud itself against all accident 

 or injury. But if precautions of the same nature as in 

 grafting are not requisite in budding, others are of no 

 less moment. It is indispensable that the bud which is 

 employed should be fully formed, or what gardeners call 

 ripe ; if it is imperfectly formed, or unripe, it may not 

 be capable of that subsequent elongation upwards and 



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