GRAFTING AND BTJDDD7G. 



5 



some of which we shall mention. Virgil speaks of a plum- 

 tree which bore apples after having been grafted, and recom- 

 mends the grafting of the pear on the ash. Martial advises 

 the grafting of the cherry on the poplar. Columella, whose 

 works are equally trustworthy, would have the olive grown on 

 the fig. Palladius speaks of the walnut being grafted on the 

 Arbutus, the pear on the almond, and the citron of his native 

 island of Sardinia on the mulberry-tree. Pliny considers 

 thunder injurious to trees grafted on the white-thorn. 



Madame de Genlis, it is said, grafted the rose on the holly or 

 the black currant, in order to obtain green or black roses ; and 

 the Abbe Eozier recognised the possibility of it. Others 

 united, in their imagination, the apple to the briar, hoping to 

 gather therefrom Calvilles ; the orange to the holly, in order to 

 acclimatize the former in open woods ; the vine to the walnut- 

 tree, so as to have grapes full of oil. They are merely so 

 many hallucinations, like the story of a cornel grafted on a 

 peach-tree in a garden at Troyes, published by M. de Caylus 

 in his " History of the Conjunction of Plants." The ancients 

 are not the only persons guilty of falsification in the matter of 

 grafting. There have been many instances of it in our own 

 time, and we shall long continue to hear of black roses being 

 produced from a black currant stock, &c. 



Mutual Vigour of the Parts. 

 It will always be better to unite by grafting only such 

 subjects as have between them some analogy in point of vigour, 

 time of commencing to vegetate, and hardiness. If any differ- 

 ence should exist, it would be preferable that the graft should 

 be of later vegetation than the stock, and also more vigorous 

 and hardy. Tender varieties suit well with a stock of moderate 

 vigour ; but on a weakly stock they produce a worthless tree. 

 When grafted on too vigorous a stock, it is difficult for them 

 to absorb all the sap furnished by the roots ; an evenness of 



