120 LETTER VIII. 



one tree will grow upon another if skilfully applied to 

 it. There are those who have believed that a piece 

 of one plant would grow upon any other ; and that 

 Roses might be budded upon Black Currant bushes 

 or Pomegranates ; this, however, is untrue. It is 

 a certain fact, that one tree will grow upon another 

 only when the two are very closely allied in structure. 

 Thus a Pear will grow upon a Medlar or a Mountain 

 Ash, but not so well as on some other Pear ; a Rose 

 will grow upon any other Rose, but not upon an 

 Apple. This is a fundamental rule. 



In the next place, the stems of all plants consist of 

 buds, and of the part that bears them ; the latter has 

 no power of growing without the former, but the for- 

 mer can grow without the latter. For example, if I 

 plant a portion of a stem deprived of its buds, it will 

 die, notwithstanding all the care I can take to pre- 

 serve it ; but if I take the bud of a plant without 

 any stem, and place it in earth, it will grow, if due 

 precautions are employed ; this shews, that the pro- 

 perty of increasing a plant resides in the buds ex- 

 clusively. It is not, however, necessary to separate 

 the bud from the stem ; on the contrary, the two 

 taken together are frequently employed, when they 

 are called cuttings ; if the bud alone is employed, it 

 retains its own name. These are the next points to 

 attend to. 



Thirdly, both cuttings and buds will grow in other 

 media than earth, as for instance, in water, or damp 

 moss, or in any material which is capable of furnish- 

 ing them with a constant supply of moisture and 



