ABOUT GKAFTING AND BUDDING. 



49 



admitted to be a general law, and in support of his argu- 

 ment, he referred me for exceptions to Darwin's " Plants 

 and Animals under Domestication." I have examined 

 this work, and find only two cases wherein it is claimed 

 that the graft is influenced by the stock, or the stock by 

 the graft. The first is at page 457, Vol. 1, where "Prof. 

 Caspary describes the case of a six-year-old white Moss 

 Eose, which sent up several suckers, one of which was 

 thorny and destitute of moss, exactly like those of the 

 Provence Eose, (R. centifolia), another shoot bore both 

 kinds of flowers, and in addition longitudinally striped 

 flowers. As this white moss had been grafted on the 

 Provence Eose, Prof. Caspary attributes the above changes 

 to the influence of the stock, but from the facts already 

 given, and from others to be given, bud variation with 

 reversion is probably sufficient explanation " ; and Dar- 

 win proceeds to give nearly a dozen cases of like variation 

 where there was no grafting at all. A very marked case 

 of this "bud variation 99 is at the present time existing 

 in my own greenhouses. In a bed of about one hun- 

 dred plants of the new tea-rose, " La Nankin," all made 

 from the cuttings from one parent plant, we have had 

 four distinct varieties. The original flower or bud has 

 its base or lower half of a nankeen yellow color, while its 

 upper half is pure white, the separate colors being clearly 

 defined, yet among our plants from cuttings we have 

 some flowers that are entirely of the nankeen color, with- 

 out white ; then again pure white with no nankeen, and 

 on one shoot the flowers came of a light pink or blush 

 shade. Now had Prof. Caspary a grafted plant of "La 

 Nankin " playing these freaks, he no doubt would have 

 concluded that it was the influence of the graft on the 

 stock. There are other instances in grafting where an 

 amalgamation of individualities apparently occurs ; these 

 cases are familiar to all horticulturists of much experi- 

 ence, and are also alluded to by Darwin in the work above 

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