ON GRAFTING. 



165 



Now though I dare not hazard the recommend- 

 ation of a method founded on such chimerical prin- 

 ciples, I shall be far from prejudicing my readers 

 against any experiments of the sort : I do not 

 assert that this process cannot succeed, but this I 

 beg leave to suggest, that it would be right for 

 those who choose to make the trial, not to enter- 

 tain too sanguine expectations of its success. In 

 a pursuit of this kind, the operator .would do well 

 previously to consider the affinity that ought to 



even by inarching, which is the most certain of all the ways ot 

 grafting ; and much less by the method as set forth above. For 

 the cutting of the scion and stock smooth, and fitting them 

 together with exactness, are the first principles in grafting t 

 whereas boring with an auger will naturally bruise and tear the 

 bark, and must therefore destroy these intentions-. 



" The Ceriosa [Carthusians *] stands in a fine air and plea- 

 sant situation, in the midst of vineyards. They have several 

 courts with cloysters, one as large as the great court of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. Each father has to his cell a pretty 

 garden, some of which are very curious, having many exotic 

 plants, &c 



" One of them had fish in his cistern, which ate lettuce out 

 of his hands. This father had tried some experiments in graft- 

 ing ; as of a Vine on a fig-tree, Jasmine on an orange, which 

 had taken and grew, f All of them have some employment for 

 their vacant hours." % 



* At Bologna. 



\ This account may serve to pass among monastic legends, hid 

 it is too absurd to gain credit with the professional gardener. 



J Observations made in travelling through France and Italy, 

 fyc. by Edward WrigH, Esq. vol. ii. page 4.35. 



M 3 



