IMPOSSIBLE GKAFTS. 347 



Tlie Hon. Algernon Herbert succeeded in grafting the common Laurel 

 on the WHd Cherry-tree ; the scions, he tells us, shot Tigorously, and 

 formed a small head ; but they died oflf in the second and third years. 

 Deodar Cedars grafted on the Larch take freely, but soon die ; and in 

 general worked Coniferous plants are perishable and -worthless, in con- 

 sequence of the impossibility of finding suitable stocks for them. 

 "When, however, varieties of the Yew are inserted upon the common 

 Yew, and Deodars on Cedars of Lebanon, the plants so obtained are 

 permanent. When China Roses are worked upon briars they stand 

 indifferently, and the same appears to be the case with Rhododendrons 

 when varieties of ponticum are worked on catawbiense, or vice versd, 

 although grafted Rhododendrons are sound and permanent when 

 catawhiense is inserted on catawhiense, ponticum aa. ponticwm, &o. 



There are two supposed cases apparently at variance with 

 this law ; both of which require explanation. 



1. Columella asserts that, by a particular manner of grafting, 

 the Olive may be made to take upon the Fig-tree, and his 

 words have been repeated by many writers ; but Thouin 

 proved, experimentally, that no such union will take place, and 

 that where success appears to attend Columella's operation, it 

 is owing to the scion rooting into the soU, independently of the 

 Fig stock (see M^moire sur la pretendue Greffe Cohmelle), and 

 becoming a layer. 



a. Mention is made by Pliny of a tree in the garden of 

 Lucullus, at Tivoli, which is described in his Natv/ral History. 

 On the trunk of one tree he saw branches which produced 

 Pears, others Figs, Apples, Plums, Olives, Almonds, Grapes, 

 &c. ; but he adds, a little farther on, that this wonderful tree 

 which he considered as produced by the art of grafting, did not 

 live long, and that it died some years after he first examined 

 it. " It is probable that this tree had been formed merely 

 by planting different species within some other. Even at the 

 present day the gardeners of Italy, especiaUy of Genoa, 

 Florence, and Eome, sell plants of Jasmines, Eoses, Honey- 

 suckles, &c., all growing together from a stock of Orange, or 

 Myrtle, or Pomegranate, on which they say they are grafted 

 But this is a deception, the fact being that the stock has its 

 centre bored out, so as to be made into a ioUow cylinder, 

 through which the stems of Jasmines and other flexible plants 



