172 



New Method of grafting Pines. 



there was a very rich deep border. Although, in my endeavours 

 to graft with detached scions, I had taken care to keep up a very 

 damp atmosphere, still my attempts proved abortive : to a gar- 

 dener who knows that a single bud, when immersed an inch in 

 any tolerable soil, will not fail, under ordinary care, to become 

 a plant ; or, that a cutting of young wood, when in full leaf, 

 put in a heap of fermenting tan, and shaded, will also root freely; 

 the failure of detached scions, even when grafted in a masterly 

 manner, will certainly appear paradoxical. Knowing that the 

 same kind of sap which, when put in motion, causes the emission 

 of roots in the cutting, produces also the union between the 

 stock and scion in grafting, I was led to put the question to my- 

 self, whether a single bud, inserted in the stock, and enveloped 

 with any light mould that may keep moderately moist, would not 

 effect the desired union ? To enable myself to give a decisive 

 answer to this question, I took a small black Hamburgh vine, 

 which had grown for a year or two in a pot, the stem of which 

 did not exceed -fx) of an inch in diameter, from which I ex- 

 cised two pieces of the extent of 

 half their diameters (see^'. 15.). 

 I then took two shoots from vines 

 growing out of doors, from which 

 I selected the buds {a and b) ; 

 first cutting quite across the 

 shoots, and afterwards slipping 

 them longitudinally, reserving 

 nearly all the pith to the part 

 containing the bud ; except the 

 two extremities, which I cut away 

 till the bark of the stock and 

 scion came nicely in contact. 

 I then bandaged them tightly 

 together in the usual manner, 

 only leaving the buds uncovered 

 by the ligature. I next fitted a 

 small flower-pot (size No. 60.) 



which I filled 



of an old cu- 

 cumber bed : this was done about the beginning of Novem- 

 ber, and about a month afterwards the vine was plunged in 

 a mild heat. The buds of the vine soon broke ; and, in about 

 three weeks afterwards, the buds from the scions were seen 

 emerging from the mould in the pots. The bud a is now about 

 4 in. above the mould ; and the other, as might be expected 

 about half that distance. I may mention that I have sufFei'ed 

 strong shoots to issue from the stock above the scions; so that, if 



round the grafts, 

 with the mould 



I 



