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HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



ishment which is adapted to its nature, and 

 that the specific character of the engrafted plant 

 remains unchanged, although its qualities may 

 be partially affected." — Neill. "The influence 

 exercised by the stock is very marked, and it is 

 of great importance to select good stocks on 

 which to graft slips. In this way the fruit is 

 often much improved by a process of ennobling, 

 as it is called. The scion, also, in some cases 

 seems to exercise a remarkable effect on the 

 stock. Slips taken from varieties with varie- 

 gated leaves, grafted on unvariegated, have 

 caused the leaves of the latter to assume varie- 

 gation ; and the effect, when once established, 

 has continued even after the slip was removed. 

 The effects of grafting are well seen in the case 

 of the red laburnum, when united to the yellow 

 species. The red laburnum is a hybrid between 

 tne common yellow laburnum and Cytisus pur- 

 pureas, or the purple laburnum. The branches 

 below the graft produce the ordinary yellow 

 laburnum flowers of large size ; those above 

 often exhibit the small purple laburnum flower, 

 as well as reddish flowers, intermediate between 

 the two in size and colour. Occasionally the 

 same cluster has some flowers yellow and some 

 purple." — Balfour. " Since, then, the develop- 

 ments of the graft are proved to be, in fact, 

 altogether uninfluenced by the stock, it may be 

 safely asserted that the latter ought to be con- 

 sidered as a medium only, or vehicle, through 

 which the vascular organs of the former pass, 

 and are conveyed into the soil, whence their 

 spongioles and rootlets, by the aid of electric 

 agency, affect the intro-susception of the nutritive 

 sap. It may, however, be admitted, that in the 

 first instance the cellular system and juices of the 

 stock exert an attractive energy upon those of 

 the graft; and that while the former affords an 

 appropriate matrix or bed, wherein the granular 

 excisions from the scion may affix themselves 

 and be secured, the latter keeps up that supply 

 of moisture which is required till the union is 

 completely effected. A graft or scion, there- 

 fore, can be viewed in no other light than as a 

 cutting deposited in a more congenial medium 

 of nutrition than the soil, all the former deve- 

 lopments of which cutting are completely its 

 own, and wholly independent of any physical 

 agency or influence exerted by the stock." — 

 Towers. " In proportion as the scion and stock 

 approach each other closely in constitution, the 

 less effect is produced by the latter; and on 

 the contrary, in proportion to the constitutional 

 difference between the stock and the scion, is 

 the effect of the former important. Thus when 

 pears are grafted or budded on the wild species, 

 apples upon crabs, plums upon plums, and 

 peaches upon peaches or almonds, the scion is, 

 in regard to fertility, exactly in the same state 

 as if it had not been grafted at all ; while, on 

 the other hand, a great increase of fertility is 

 the result of grafting pears upon quinces, peaches 

 upon plums, apples upon white thorn, and the 

 like. In these latter cases, the food absorbed 

 from the earth by the root of the stock is com- 

 municated slowly and unwillingly to the scion ; 

 under no circumstance is the communication 

 between the one and the other as free and per- 



fect as if their natures had been more nearly the 

 same : the sap is impeded in its ascent, and the 

 proper juices are impeded in their descent ; 

 whence arises that accumulation of secretion 

 which is sure to be attended by increased ferti- 

 lity. No other influence than this can be exer- 

 cised by the scion upon the stock. Those who 

 fancy that the contrary takes place — that the 

 quince, for instance, communicates some of its 

 austerity to the pear— can scarcely have con- 

 sidered the question physiologically, or they 

 would have seen that the whole of the food com- 

 mutated from the alburnum of the quince to 

 that of the pear is in nearly the same state as 

 when it entered the roots of the former. What- 

 ever elaboration it undergoes must necessarily 

 take place in the foliage of the pear, where, far 

 from the influence of the quince, secretions na- 

 tural to the variety go on with no more inter- 

 ruption than if the quince formed no part of the 

 system of the individual." — G. Lindley. 



The influence of the graft upon the stock ap- 

 pears scarcely to extend beyond the power of 

 communicating disease, as shown by the diffi- 

 culty of inducing health and vigour in a tree 

 that has been grafted from another in an un- 

 healthy state, even although grafted upon a 

 healthy stock for many times in repeated suc- 

 cession. Disease is certainly communicated to 

 the stock when the infection is conveyed by 

 scions taken from a tree in which inherent or 

 hereditary disease exists. 



In connection with the influence the stock 

 may be supposed to have upon the graft, we 

 may observe, that while it is perfectly possible 

 to have a hundred sorts or more of apples upon 

 one tree, and of pears upon another tree, each 

 after its kind, yet no difference occurs in one of 

 them, either in size, colour, flavour, or form, but 

 each grows on as if it were upon a distinct stock 

 of its own. And, again, we have white, red, and 

 the intermediate variety of currant called the 

 champagne by some, all growing on the same 

 bush, and all retaining their individual charac- 

 ters for years. The peach, nectarine, and apri- 

 cot have been wrought all on one tree, each re- 

 taining its own marks of peculiar distinction. 

 The sap which supplies nourishment to all these 

 is only a simple fluid collected by the roots of 

 the stock, passing upwards through it to the 

 fruit and to the leaves, which latter have the 

 power of digesting and modifying it, and form- 

 ing it into a proper juice, which re-descends in 

 the inner bark ; and even every bud and leaf 

 upon the whole tree maintains its individu- 

 ality, and prepares its own proper food or organ- 

 ising matter out of that general aliment the sap, 

 which was conveyed, a mere simple fluid, alike 

 to all : the leaves, therefore, have the power of 

 preparing the food for the plant, and of convey- 

 ing it to the fruit. If, therefore, any change 

 takes place, it would be in the leaves, which are 

 the vegetable laboratory, and not in the fruit. 

 The sap, which ascends year after year in form 

 of a mere simple fluid, and returns again year 

 after year in an elaborated form, gives bulk to 

 the branches, stem, and even to the stock; still 

 the latter, although increased in size, is not al- 

 tered in constitution, and will no more throw 



