218 PROPAGATION. 



having several visible buds is transferred to the stock, 

 by the former we transfer but one. Grafting is best 

 performed in the spring just as the sap begins to be in 

 motion ; budding is done most successfully when the 

 cambium or new layer of wood has gained considerable 

 consistence, and from which the bark is easily raised. 

 Some plants, chiefly our stone fruit trees, if wounded 

 through the bark while the growth is stagnant, or before 

 the living cellular matter of the envelope is in motion, 

 do not readily heal. The wound becomes an inveterate 

 sore, discharging for a long time the sap which be- 

 comes inspissated into gum by the air, at once exhaust- 

 ing the tree, and detrimental to the adjacent organisa- 

 tion of the system. Grafting such trees at the usual 

 season, is therefore impracticable; but budding is eligible 

 merely because the wound made in the operation is 

 quickly healed, and the practice otherwise almost 

 always successful. 



Budding is only a modification of grafting, and suc- 

 ceeds upon the same principle being followed, viz. 

 placing the vital members of the two plants in contact 

 to form the desired connection. The bud to be inserted 

 is cut off a properly ripened shoot, and after being 

 freed from a thin slice of wood that comes off with it, 

 is placed in an opening made in the bark of the stock 

 to receive it. Thus it is placed in nearly the same 

 situation on the stock, that it had on its native branch ; 

 the inner bark and vital envelope of the bud resting 

 on the envelope of the stock ; the outer bark of the 



