DOES GRAFTAGE DEVITALIZE ? 



91 



facts do not affirm the question. There are two ways of 

 approaching the general question, by philosophical con- 

 siderations and by direct evidence. 



It is held by many persons that any asexual propaga- 

 tion is in the end devitalizing, since the legitimate method 

 of propagation is by means of seeds. This notion appears 

 to have found confirmation in the conclusions of Darwin 

 and his followers, that the ultimate function of se.x is 

 to revitalize and strengthen the offspring following the 

 union of the characters or powers of two parents ; for if 

 the expensive sexual propagation invigorates the type, 

 asexual propagation would seem to weaken it. It does 

 not follow, however, that because sexual reproduction is 

 good, asexual increase is bad, but rather that the one is, 

 as a rule, better than the other, without saying that the 

 other is injurious. We are not .surprised to find, there- 

 fore, that some plants have been asexually propagated 

 for centuries with apparently no decrease of vitality, al- 

 though this fact does not prove that the plant may not 

 have positively increased in virility if sexual propagation 

 had been employed. The presumption is always in favor 

 of sexual reproduction, a point which will be admitted by 

 every one. And right here is where graftage has an 

 enormous theoretical advantage over cuttage or any other 

 asexual multiplication : the root of the grafted plant springs 

 from sexual reproduction, for it is a seedling, and if the 

 union is physically perfect, as is frequently the case, there 

 is reason to suppose that grafting between consanguineous 

 plants is better than propagating by cuttings or layers. 

 In other words, graftage is really sexual multiplication, 

 and if seeds have any ad\'antage over buds in forming 

 tlie foundation of a plant, graftage is a more perfect 

 method than any other artificial practice. It is, in fact, 

 the nearest approach to direct sexual reproduction, and 

 when seeds cannot be relied upon wholly, as they cannot, 

 for the reproduction of many garden varieties, it is the 

 ideal practice, always provided, of course, that it is prop- 



