HOW PLANTS HAVE BEEN IMPEOVED BY MAN 161 



Grating : I 

 grafted on 



to be 

 The 



cut as shewn in the fig. 119 a, and 

 the shoot b is cut so as to fit in exactly. 

 Next, some clay or grafting wax is 

 plastered on, and the whole is then 

 bound up with tape. The great 

 point in grafting, as in budding, is 

 to get the inner barks .exactly fitted 

 together, so that the tubes that carry 

 the ripe leaf-sap may' get together. 

 We saw that it is this ripe leaf- sap 

 that makes new wood and new 

 bark. 



scion, h and the stock 



a are so cut that the 14. Suppose that you have a rose- 

 exactly on the bark of bush that is healthy but with a poor 



the other; c shows the n ji i, i jj* £l- 



two joined. nower ; then by budding or grafting 



from a fine rose, you may get a good 

 flower on a strong root. In the same way, you may 

 improve your fruit-trees. Fine but delicate kinds are 

 budded or grafted on strong kinds that have grown 

 for a year in the nursery. Apples that suffer from 

 the apple-aphis are grafted or budded on roots that 

 are proof against this pest ; and trees that cannot 

 stand a damp soil are grown on roots that thrive in 

 such soil. 



16. Of all the plans for improving plants, the 

 simplest for you to try is that of sowing the best seeds 

 of the best plants. Wonderful improvements have 

 been made in this way. And here again, we are but 

 copying Nature. Let us suppose that 100 seeds fall 

 from an annual, and that all these get covered with 

 earth. Most of the seeds come up, but after a struggle 

 one plant only remains. Which one ? Some of the 

 seeds grew on the strong well-sunned shoots of the 



