Book IV. 



PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING. 



391 



sjrring, and in general cases, the union is effected in four or five months, when the layer 

 or inarched shoot may be separated from the mother plant. This must be done with a 

 very steady hand, so as not to loosen or break out the adhering shoot, sloping it off down- 

 wards, close to the stock ; and if the head of the stock was not cut down at the time of 

 inarching, it must now be cut off in a sloping direction close to the union ; and all the 

 old clay and bandage cleared away and replaced with new, to remain a few weeks longer 

 till the adhesion is complete, when it may be finally removed. In some cases, however, 

 the inarched shoot requires to remain two years, during the whole of which period, it 

 should be carefully covered to exclude the air from the wounds ; nor must the binding be 

 removed more than once during that period for fear of disturbing the cicatrising parts. 



2011. Inm-ching a branch or shoot on the same tree (Jig' 378. b) is frequently a very 

 convenient mode of filling up vacancies in trees ; in which case it is generally performed 

 without heading down. Knight adopted this practice on a peach-tree, for a very in- 

 genious purpose, that of procuring returning or concocted sap to swell and ripen the fruit. 

 " In the last season (1812), a peach-tree in my garden, of which I was very anxious to 

 see the fruit, had lost, by the severity of the weather, all its blossoms, except two, which 

 grew upon leafless branches : I was very desirous to preserve these, as well as to ascertain 

 the cause why the peach and nectarine, under such circumstances, fail to acquire maturity. 

 The most probable cause, according to my hypothesis, appeared to be the want of return- 

 ing sap (which the leaves, if existing, would have afforded}, and the consequent morbid 

 state of the branch ; I therefore endeavoured to derive the necessary portion of returning 

 sap from another source. To obtain this object, the points of the branches, which bore 

 fruit, were brought into contact with other branches of the same age that bore leaves ; and 

 a part of their bark, extending in length about four times their diameters, was pared off 

 immediately above the fruit. Similar wounds were then made upon the other branches, 

 with which these were brought into contact ; and the wounded surfaces were closely 

 fitted ; and tightly bound together. An union soon took place ; and the fruit, apparently 

 in consequence of it, acquired the highest state of maturity and perfection." Inarching,! 

 like grafting, may be applied to various curious and useful purposes (c, d). Harte men- 

 tions that the hornbeam-hedges, in some parts of the Netherlands, were worked in the 

 lozenge foi-m (rf), and tha/: by removing the bark at each intersection, the whole had be-' 

 come united as if one tree. Some curious examples of inarching and grafting combined, 

 are to be seen in the Jardin des Flantes. 



2012. Inarching herbaceous vegetables may, in almost all solid or sub-solid stalked 

 plants, whether annual or of longer duration, be performed with equal certainty as 

 in ligneous kinds. The vine of the cucumber may be inarched on that of the gourd,' 

 the love-apple on the potatoe, &c. (Baron Tschoudi. ) 



SuBSECT. 4. Propagation by Grafting. 

 ■ 2013. Grafting is a mode of propagation applicable to most sorts of trees and shrubs ; 

 but not easily to very small under-shrubs, as heath or herbaceous vegetables. It is chiefly 

 used for continuing varieties of fruit-trees. A grafted tree consists of two parts, the scion 

 and the stock ; their union constitutes the graft, and the performance of the operation is 

 called grafting. The scion is a part of the living vegetable, which, united or inserted in 

 a stock or other vegetable of the same nature, identifies itself with it, and grows there as 

 on its natural stem and roots. 



2014. The end of grafting is, 1st. To conserve and multiply varieties and subvarieties 

 of fruit-trees, endowed accidentally or otherwise with particular qualities, which cannot 

 be with certainty transferred to their offspring by seeds, and which would be multiplied 

 too slowly, or ineffectually, by any other mode of propagation. 2. To accelerate the 

 fructification of trees, barren as well as fruit-bearing ; for example, suppose two acorns 

 of a new species of oak, received from a distant country ; sow both, and after they have 

 grown one or two years, cut one of them over, and graft the part cut off on a common 

 oak of five or six years' growth ; the consequence will be that the whole nourishment of 

 this young tree of five years' growth being directed towards nourishing the scion of one 

 or two years', it will grow much faster, and consequently arrive at perfection much sooner 

 than its fellow, or its own root left in the ground. A French author found the advantage 

 of this practice in the case of a new species of ash, to be as five to one in point of height. 

 (Cours Complet d' Agriculture, &c. art. Greffe.) The third use of grafting is to improve 

 the quality of fruits ; the fourth to perpetuate varieties of ornamental trees or shrubs ; 

 and the fifth to change the sorts of fruit on any one tree and renew its fruitfulness. 



2015. The tJieory of grafting may be reduced to the following particulars : — 



201 6. To graft or unite only varieties of the same species ; species of the same genus ; and 

 by extension, genera of the same natural family. Unless this union of natures be attended 

 to, success will not attend the operation. 



2017. To observe the analogies ^ trees, as to the periods of the movement of their sap ; 

 in the permanence or deciduous duration of their leaves j and the qualities of the juices of 



C c 4 



