On the Straisoberry. 307 



performed by any other person ; and, from its extreme sim- 

 plicity, I took good care not to mention it to any body until I 

 had proved its effects. In the month of May of the above 

 year, I carelessly cut a scion from a vine which was growing in 

 the open air, and which was just beginning to vegetate, and as 

 carelessly grafted it on a vine in the hot-house which was just 

 bursting into leaf. It bled for a day or two, and then, to my 

 great astonishment, began to grow as fast and as well as the 

 other vines in the house. Elated with my success, I determined 

 to put this method of grafting in execution on all the vines I 

 wished to change the following season. So, accordingly, in the 

 month of March of last year, I procured nine kinds of grape 

 vines, from a late hot-house, just beginning to show signs of 

 vegetation. These I engrafted on vines in a hot-house which 

 had been forced from the 1st of February, in the above simple 

 manner, which I will now describe to you more in detail. I take 

 a shoot of last year for a stock, and, having rubbed off the 

 young green wood of the present season, I cut it through ex- 

 actly in the centre of the collet, or internodium, making a 

 longitudinal cut of about an inch in length, and taking care not 

 to ruffle the medulla, or pith. I then select a scion of nearly 

 the same circumference as the stock, and I prepare it in the 

 same manner; making the two join as exactly as if they were 

 one undivided vine. They are then tied very firmly together 

 with a waxed piece of twine, and waxed over when tied, and 

 then clayed as in common grafting, with a covering of moss 

 over all, which is frequently moistened till the shoot has grown 

 a foot or two in length. This finishes the operation ; nothing 

 more being necessary but to cut off the twine in the autumn. 

 All of the above-mentioned nine vines grew remarkably strong ; 

 more particularly the following kinds, oil the Black Hamburgh 

 as the stock : — Grizzly Frontignan, Black Damascus, White 

 Syrian, and White Raisin. The Grizzly Frontignan bore four 

 bunches of fruit, which were ripe in the first week of June this 

 year, fourteen months from the time of grafting, and for which 

 I obtained an extra prize at the St. Andrew's Horticultural 

 Society's meeting at that period. In this instance, the black 

 stock made no difference on the grizzly fruit. 

 The Priory, Oct. 27. 1836. 



Art. X. On the Straviberry. By A. Forsyth. 



The strawberry is now a staple article in the dessert for at 

 least six months in the year. To have it early, as at Christ- 

 mas, and from that till the middle of March, is rather trouble- 

 some ,' more so than the fruit, under ordinary circumstances, is 



X 2 



