36 



THE GARDEXER. 



Too much luxuriance in the plant, whose succulence 

 is promoted at the expense of the seed, may, however, 

 be corrected by any of the methods for restraining ex- 

 cessive vigour, which will be treated of soon, and the 

 formation and perfection of the seed promoted accord- 

 ingly. 



The want of pollen in the anthers of plants is an- 

 other cause of barrenness — in those of the Pelargo- 

 nium, that shed their pollen before the stigmates are 

 prepared to receive it — and unless the anther of an- 

 other flower be applied to these stigmates at the pro- 

 per period, there is no fertility from seed. In the 

 greenhouse or any confined place to which bees and 

 flies have no access until the season of impregnation 

 has passed away, there is occasionally a total barren- 

 ness. There are numerous monstrous creations in the 

 vegetable as in the animal world — those of course are 

 seedless also. 



Hence will appear the necessity of resorting to some 

 artificial methods of increasing plants. 



The most important and curious, are those of bud- 

 ding and grafting; plants are extensively multiplied 

 also by cuttings, slips, and layering. 



If a scion be detached from one plant, and properly 

 inserted into another, the elaborate fluid called cam- 

 hiwn causes their coalition, provided they have the 

 power of producing new tissues from the surfaces of 

 their respective sections. If a bud be taken from one 

 plant and inoculated into another, the sap in the stock 

 causes a vital union, and in both cases, when this has 

 taken place, the sap rises through the scion or the 

 shoot which has proceeded from the bud, and descends 

 unobstructed in its course. Should the channel of 

 communication in the latter case — that is, the stratum 

 between the inner bark and the alburnum, called the 

 liber — be entirely divided across, the limb dies. 



Yet a circular incision, known by the term ringing, 



