224 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



zontal distension of the stems forces them together, 

 and they assume all the appearances of being united. 

 ■Such plants are, of course, very short-lived. 



From what has been now stated, it may be easily 

 conceived that the choice of the stock on which a 

 given plant is to be worked is by no means a matter 

 of indifference, but that the operation may be serious- 

 ly affected by the skill with which the most suitable 

 stock is selected. If, indeed, we had no other object 

 in view in grafting than to unite one plant to ano- 

 ther, that object would doubtless be best attained by 

 using the same species, and even a similar variety of 

 the same species, for both stock and scion ; the ends 

 of grafting and budding are, however, much beyond 

 this, and it often happens that the species to which a 

 scion belongs, or the nearest variety, is the worst on 

 which it can be worked. It is, indeed, sometimes 

 asserted that the stock exercises little influence over 

 the scion, but this is so great an error that it cannot 

 be too distinctly contradicted. This subject has al- 

 ready been adverted to, but it now requires more 

 special consideration. 



One of the first objects of budding and grafting, is 

 to multiply a given species or variety more readily 

 than is possible by any other method. If this is the 

 only purpose of the cultivator, that stock will obvi- 

 ously be the best which can be most readily procur- 

 ed ; and hence we see, in the ordinary practice of the 

 nurseries, the common Plum taken as a stock for 

 Peaches and Apricots, the Wild Pear and Crab for 

 Pears and Apples, and so on. When there is a diffi- 



