GRAFTING. 315 



contact unites by granulations ; and, when the wood forms, 

 it passes through the cellular deposit, and holds the whole 

 together. The use of " tongueing " is merely to steady the 

 scion, and to prevent its slipping. The advantage of this 

 mode of grafting is, the quickness with which it may be per- 

 formed; the disadvantage is, that the surfaces applied to 

 each other are much smaller than can be secured by other 

 means. It is, however, a great improvement upon the old 

 crown-grafting, still employed in the practice of some Conti- 

 nental gardeners, but expelled from Great Britain; which 

 consists of nothing more than heading down a stock with an 

 exactly horizontal cut, and splitting it through the middle, into 

 which is forced the end of a scion cut into the form of a wedge ; 

 when the whole are boimd together. In this method the split 

 in the stock, can hardly be made to heal without great care, if at 

 all ; the union between the edges of the scion and those of the 

 stock is often imperfect, because the bark of the former 

 necessarily lies upon the wood of the latter, except just at the 

 sides; and, from the dif&culty of bringing the two barks 

 suf&ciently in contact, neither the ascending nor descending 

 currents of sap are able freely to intermingle. This plan, 

 much improved by cutting out the stock into the form of a 

 wedge, instead of splitting it, may, however, be advantageously 

 employed for such plants as Cactacese, the paxts of which, 

 owing to their succulence, and consisting chiefly of cellular 

 matter, readily form a union with each other. 



The mettod employed in grafting Cacti is thus described, in, the 

 Gardener^ Chronicle, by Mr. John Green, one of the most sldlful 

 growers of ornamental plants that this country has known : — " I grow 

 for stocks, Pereskia acuLeata, Cereus hexagonus, and Cereus speciosissi- 

 mus ; I prefer the latter, on account of its hardy, lasting, and robust 

 habit. I grow the stocks freely till they attain the height that I 

 want them. Some I grow with five or six stems, from one to five feet 

 high ; others I grow with one stem, from one to four feet ; the short 

 stems I engraft at the top with the Epiphyllum speoiosum and Acker- 

 manni, the tall single sterna with E. truncatum, and some from the 

 surface of the pot to the top, all of which is of course according to indi- 

 vidual fancy ; E. truncatum should always be engrafted high, without 

 which, from its drooping habit, the greater part of the beauty of the 



