95 
ing the air or the wet. It also prevents the bud or graft from 
drying. 
Two parts of beeswax and one of resin are melted over the fire, 
and calico or strong muslin is dipped into it. When the cloth is 
saturated, all the superfluous hot wax is scraped off before the 
cloth cools. This is done by drawing and squeezing the cloth 
between two sticks, or between the melting pot and a stick. The 
cloth is then spread out to cool, after which it is torn, when required 
for use, into strips of one-quarter to one-half inch wide, and 10 to 
12 inches long. 
Some people roll old calico or thin muslin on a stick, and place 
it in melted wax. When saturated it is allowed to cool by being 
unrolled on a bench. It is then cut into strips to suit. 
Tie Bands——The best of all ties is Raphia fibre, the cuticle of 
the leaves of the Raphia palm, which grows on low, swampy lands 
in Madagascar. It is damped before using, and does not cut the 
bark, on which it lies fat. 
For tying grafts buried underground, Raphia should be steeped 
in a solution of sulphate of copper, which makes it more resistant 
to rot. This fibre is sold in bundles by all seedsmen. 
Affinity of Stock and Scion. 
The closer related the plants put together the more perfect the 
graft. This rule, however, is not without exceptions; this may be 
due to the fact that the various systems of classification of plants, 
although acceptable enough, are more or less artificial and conven- 
tional. For this reason it is not always possible to state with cer- 
tainty when the degree of relationship is such that grafting either 
becomes permissible or is of no avail. In fact, numerous examples 
are on record of successful grafts having been effected on plants 
apparently wide apart in a botanical sense, and of unsuccessful 
grafts between plants very closely related. Thus from the Cornell 
University experimental station we hear of grafts of tomatoes upon 
potatoes and potatoes upon tomatoes, growing well and fruiting 
(two solanaceae of different species). The tomato on potato plant 
bore good tomatoes above and good potatoes beneath, even though 
no sprouts from the potato stock were allowed to grow, 
On the other hand, apple and pear trees, which botanists 
classify close together under the genus Pyrus on account of their 
resemblance, do not graft successfully when the apple is worked 
on the pear, and only unite indifferently when the pear is worked 
on the apple. ‘That same pear, however, worked on the quince, 
which belongs to a different genus (Cydonia) in the botanical 
classification, unites without trouble. 
A striking anomaly in the behaviour of two plants of the like 
genus, or of genuses closely related, grafted together, when the one 
is deciduous and the other evergreen, is that an evergreen scion will 
