BUDDING AND GKxYFTING. 



121 



should be perfectly covered with the composition, and the 

 stock and scion must correspond, not only in their nature, 

 but in their habits of growth. 

 Inarching, or Grafting Dy Approach. — This mode is 

 practised with Camellias and Magnolias. A 

 branch is bent and partly cut through, as in 

 figure 52, and the heel, thus formed, is slipped 

 into a slit made downward in the stock to re- 

 ceive it ; the parts are then made to meet as 

 exactly as possible, and are bound with bass 

 strings, as in figure 53, and covered with graft- 

 ing clay, or with the composition. In five or 

 six months the union is complete, and the in- 

 arched plant may be separated from its parent, 

 which is done with a sharp knife so as to leave 

 a clean cut. The head of the stock, if not 



"Pier 



° ' removed before, is then cut away, and the 

 plant is ready for removal. 



There are several other modes of budding and grafting, 

 but the above are most useful and commonly practised. 



The advantages of these operations 

 are, the rapidity with which a valuable 

 kind may be propagated, which will not 

 grow from seed or cuttings: trees of 

 worthless fruit may be changed into 

 more valuable varieties; seedlings can 

 be brought into early bearing ; foreign, 

 tender fruits may be rendered hardier 

 on hardy, native stocks; a kind of fruit 

 may \e grown in a soil not congenial to 

 it, as the pear by grafting on the quince ; 

 several varieties of fruit may be grown 

 upon the same tree ; and, finally, by graft- 

 ing on dwarf-growing stocks the trees 

 may be so dwarfed as to afford many 

 ripening in succession within the limits of a small garden. 

 6 



Fig. 53. 



