128 



GRAFTAGE. 



decay unless it is well protected from the weather, 

 the old stub becomes her- 

 metically sealed by the re- 

 parative tissue. Fig. 133 

 shows a section of an 

 apple graft nearly fifty 

 years old. The original 

 stub, about an inch in 

 diameter, is seen in the center, 

 the end of it entirely free from 

 the enclosing tissue. It is a dead 

 piece of wood, a foreign body pre- 

 served in the heart of the tree. The 

 depth of the old cleft or split is traced 

 in the heavily shaded portion. When 

 this section was made, the cores of the 

 old cions were still found in the cleft 

 and the grafting-wax — faithfully laid 

 on a half century ago — still adhered to 

 the end of the stub, underneath the 

 mass of tis- 

 sue which 

 had piled it- 

 self over the 

 old wound. 



In time, 



TS2. The stub 131 split 

 Cleft-grafting through the cleft, and seen 

 ^ . . from the opposite side, 



is put to vari- 



ous other uses than the top-grafting 

 of old trees. It is in common use 

 on soft and fleshy stocks, as cactuses, 

 and various fleshy roots. Fig. 134 shows 

 a cleft-graft on cactus. The cion 

 is held in place with a pin or 

 cactus spine, and it is then bound 

 with raffia or other cord. Wax- 

 ing is not necessary. A similar 

 graft is often made on peony roots. The cleft in the thick 



/jj. Section of an old cleft- 

 graft on an apple tree. 



