GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



19 



sufficiently tough, we recommend this ligature for the 

 greater number of grafting processes. The soft leaves of the 

 common flag (Iris Pseud-acorns), which clo not cut like the 

 leaves of the cares, Trill furnish a pliant and firm ligature, but 

 not so strong as the preceding. The bark of the lime-tree, as 

 it is prepared for the manufacture of well ropes, furnishes a 

 good ligature for cleft -grafting or crown-grafting, or grafting 

 by approach, and in all cases where it is necessary to oppose a 

 certain amount of resistance to large stocks or broken tissues. 

 Dipped in water, then dried and divided, this kind of ligature 

 possesses a suitable amount of elasticity, and does not tighten 

 on the stock, as pack-thread or hamper -twine would. Packiug- 

 mats, which come as coverings of colonial imports, offer the 

 same advantages, and the ligatures which they furnish will not 

 injure the tender bark of the young wood in various kinds of 

 grafts. Pack-thread, single or doubled, and old twine unravelled 

 are very often used, because they are easily procured. They 

 should, however, not be twisted, and must be carefully looked 

 niter when the graft begins to swell. Split osiers are hardly 

 ever used except at country places, where anything better is 

 not always to be had. They may be employed as ligatures, 

 for old trees, whose diameter does not increase so rapidly as to 

 cause injury in any form to result from over-tight compression. 

 I The bark of the elm and the willow, dried and afterwards 

 1 moistened, are neither better nor worse than the split osiers, 

 Their defect is that they contract too speedily, unless they 

 have been prepared a year before-hand. The office of the 

 ligature is a temporary one ; it ceases when the union of the 

 parts is sufficiently advanced for the development of the graft. 

 We shall see further on, when we come to discuss the subject 

 more at length, what additional attention is required by the 

 ligature, and at what time it is considered to be proper to 

 1 dispense with it. 



