SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



their fruits, in order to estimate the probable advantage of grafting a fruit of any parti- 

 cular flavor on another of similar or different qualities. 



201 8. To unite exactly the inner barh of the scion with the inner bark of the stock in order 

 to facilitate the free course of the sap. 



2019. To make choice of the j)roj)er season, and perform the operation with celerity. 



2020. Any scion will not succeed on ajiy stock. Professor Thouin observes, that the 

 historians and poets of antiquity have written, and the moderns repeated on the faith of 

 others, that every scion will take on any sort of stock, provided there be a resemblance in 

 their barks. Thus Pliny, Varro, Columella, &c. speak of apples and vines grafted on 

 elms and poplars ; and Evelyn mentions, that he saw a rose grafted on an orange-tree in 

 Holland. The ancients acknowledged, however, that such grafts were but of very short 

 duration. " The result of numerous experiments which we have made," observes the 

 professor, " proves that if any one of these grafts seems at first to succeed, they all perish 

 more or less promptly." 



2021. Certain species of trees, and certain varieties of fruits, take more easily on some 

 stocks than on others. Sometimes the cause is known, and at other times we are ignorant 

 of it. Thus the platanus-leaved maple will not receive the scions of any species of its 

 genus ; the reason of which may perhaps be deduced from its milky sap, which indicates 

 an organisation different from its congeners. In like manner, the common walnut takes 

 with difficulty on the late walnut ; because the times of the motion of their sap do not 

 coincide. But why certain varieties of pear succeed better on the quince than on the 

 seedling, and others better on the seedling than on the quince, cannot so easily be ac- 

 counted for. Such anomalies are frequent, and make part of the practical science of 

 gardeners ; of so much the more importance, because less subjected to general laws. 

 (Cours Complet, &c. art. Greffe.) 



2022. Grafting may be 2^srformed on all herbaceous vegetables ivith solid stems. The 

 dahlia roots are frequently grafted in this country, and sometimes the stems are grafted 

 or inarched. Baron Tsclioudi at Strasbourg, and other physiologists at Paris, have 

 grafted melons on cucumbers, love-apples on potatoes, cauliflowers on cabbages, &c. and 

 made other similar unions with perfect success. Many of them are detailed in £ssai sur 

 la Greffe de V Herbe, &c. by the Baron Tschoudi, 1819. 



2023. Graftitig may be performed with the current yearns shoot, or ivith shoots of sevei'al 

 years' growth. This is evident from the general principles of the art, as well as from ex- 

 perience. Knight, the Baron Tschoudi, and others, have grafted young shoots in leaf ; 

 and Professor Van Mons, at Brussels, has grafted an entire tree, 1 5 feet high, on the stump 

 of another of similar diameter. (A^eill, in Horticidtural Tour, 310.) 



2024. Influence of the stock. The stock does not change the character of the species of 

 tree, which may be grafted on it ; nor even that of the variety, if the connection between 

 the stock and scion is intimate : but by a particular choice of stocks, the tree is often mo- 

 dified differently in the dimensions of its parts ; in its general aspect ; in the flavor and 

 size of its fruit, though perhaps in a very slight degree j and in the duration of its ex- 

 istence. ' 



2025. The nature of the fruit is to a certain extent affected by the nature of the stock. 

 Miller says decidedly, " that crab-stocks cause apples to be firmer, to keep longer, and 

 to have a sharper flavor ; and he is equally confident, that if the breaking pears be grafted 

 on quince-stocks, the fruit is rendered gritty or stony, while the melting pears are much 

 improved by such stocks. This, according to Neill, is scarcely to be considered as incon- 

 sistent with Lord Bacon's doctrine, ' that the scion overruleth the graft quite, the stock 

 being passive only ;' which, as a general proposition, remains true ; it being evident, that 

 the scion, bud, or inarched shoot is endowed with the power of drawing or forming 

 from the stock that peculiar kind of nourishment which is adapted to its nature, and that 

 the specific characters of the ingrafted plant remain unchanged, although its qualities may 

 be partially affected. " {Ed. Encyc. art. Hort.) 



2026. Friiitfulness and precocity produced by grafting. The effects produced upon the 

 growth and produce of a tree by grafting. Knight observes, " are similar to those which 

 occur v/hcn the descent of tiae sap is impeded by a ligature, or by the destruction of a 

 circle of bark. The disposition in young trees to produce and nourish blossom-buds and 

 fruit, is increased by this apparent obstruction of the descending sap ; and the fruit of 

 such young trees ripens, I think, somewhat earlier than upon other young trees of the 

 same age, which grow upon stocks of their own species ; but the growth and vigor of the 

 tree, and its power to nourish a succession of heavy crops are diminished apparently by 

 the stagnation in the branches and stock of a portion of that sap, which, in a tree grow- 

 ing upon its own stem, or upon a stock of its own species, would descend to nourish and 

 promote the extension of the roots, The practice, therefore, of grafting the pear-tree 

 on the quince-stock, and the peach and apricot on the plum, where extensive growtJi 

 and durability are wanted, is wrong ; but it is eligible whenever it is wished to diminisli 

 the vigor and growth of the tree, and %vhei-e its durability is not thought important." 



