PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING. 



329 



mended with a view to render the trees of a 

 dwarf habit ; and the Mahalab cherry has been 

 suggested for a similar purpose. These are all 

 obtained by sowing their seeds, which, if sown 

 in spring, will come up the same season, and 

 should not be transplanted till the second sea- 

 son after sowing. They will be in fit condition 

 to bud the season following, if intended for 

 dwarfs, but not until the second, third, or even 

 fourth year, if intended for standards ; though 

 as regards this much depends on the strength 

 they attain. Standards should be budded or 

 grafted 6 feet from the ground — the former 

 process being performed during summer and 

 the latter in spring, and also in all cases where 

 budding may have failed. The cherry does not 

 succeed equally well in all soils, and we believe 

 that much of this depends on the kind of stock 

 employed. The wild cherry stock is best 

 adapted for strong damp or clayey soils, and 

 the Mahalab for soils of a light sandy or chalky 

 nature. Stocks originated by sowing the stones 

 of the cultivated varieties are of short duration, 

 and subject to gum, and shed their blossoms 

 without setting their fruit ; on these accounts, 

 therefore, they should never be employed. 



Medlar stocks. — The Whitetorn stock has 

 been, but very improperly, used as a stock for 

 this fruit. The common pear stock is the most 

 natural, and therefore the most proper, for the 

 purpose of either budding or grafting. 



Rose stocks. — The rose is propagated by bud- 

 ding, from cuttings, layers, suckers, and seeds. 

 The more valuable varieties are increased by the 

 former method, as, if the operation be properly 

 performed, every bud will form a distinct plant. 

 Budding is also had recourse to in the forma- 

 tion of standard roses — a taste of Dutch origin, 

 imported into France, and from thence, in 1803, 

 brought into England. The stocks in general 

 use have been the tree rose, Rosa mllosa, R. 

 canina, R. rubigenosa, R. tormentosa, R. pomi- 

 fcra, &c. These have been collected from the 

 woods in a wild state, planted in nurseries, and 

 budded the same year or the following spring. 

 Notwithstanding the great demand for rose 

 stocks annually, little has been done by culti- 

 vators to improve or render more certain the 

 supply. Of late the Manettii, crimson Bour- 

 sault, and some other strong-growing kinds, 

 have been employed ; and for perpetuals, Bour- 

 bons, Noisette, Chinas, Teas, &c, the Manettii 

 stock is recommended. But budding must be 

 performed in September ; if earlier, the buds are 

 apt to perish in consequence of the watery nature 

 of the stocks. July and August is the proper 

 time to bud, when the dog rose is used as a stock. 



Stocks in general, physiologically and anato- 

 mically considered. — There are certain relation- 

 ships existing between plants, beyond which it 

 would be impossible to produce a union by the 

 process of grafting or budding — somewhat ana- 

 logous to that limitation which prevents cross 

 fecundation from taking place in the flowers of 

 plants of dissimilar species. Neither process 

 would be successful by employing plants of such 

 remote relationship as the melon and the vine, 

 the potato and the cabbage, &c. These limits, 

 so far as grafting or budding is concerned, de- 



pend anatomically on the organic structure of 

 the tissue, and physiologically on the vital 

 functions of the plant. The anatomy of plants 

 is yet so little known, even to botanists, as well 

 as to general cultivators, that they are unable 

 to determine by dissection the plants which 

 bear sufficient analogy to each other to cause 

 them to produce either of those unions to which 

 we have referred, and therefore all we at pre- 

 sent know of the matter is what is taught us by 

 practical experience. "From this it is found 

 that as plants of the same natural family have 

 an analogous organisation, they alone can be 

 grafted on one another with any prospect of suc- 

 cess ; though the success of the operation, even 

 within this limit, will not always be complete, 

 partly perhaps from some difference in organic 

 structure, as in the case of the apple and pear, 

 which can only be united for a few years, but 

 chiefly on account of the physiological differences 

 which may and do frequently exist. Decandolle 

 succeeded in grafting the lilac and the fringe 

 tree on the ash, the fringe tree on the lilac, and 

 the lilac on the phillyrea, and the olive on the 

 ash and the privet; and although these grafts 

 did not live a long time, on account of the phy- 

 siological differences of the species, yet their 

 having succeeded at all sufficiently proves the 

 anatomical analogy of plants within the same 

 natural order. This analogy is greater between 

 plants of the same genus ; more so still between 

 individuals of the same species; and most so 

 between branches of the same individual." — 

 Sub. Hort. 



Dr Van Mons considers grafting upon small 

 pieces of the roots taken out of the ground, 

 and planting the same as soon as grafted, to 

 be of all others the best mode with regard to 

 the condition of the grafted sort — first, because 

 the smallest quantity of the stock is used ; and, 

 second, because the lower part of the scion 

 being thus placed in the ground, after a time it 

 throws out fibres from that portion, and so at 

 last is actually growing on its own roots. 



There are other conditions in which a union 

 by grafting cannot take place — viz., plants with 

 milky sap, as most species of Euphorbia, will 

 not unite with those having thin, watery juices. 

 Thus Acer platanoides, for example, being the 

 only species of that genus having milky juice, 

 cannot be grafted on any others of that family. 

 Any two plants whose sap is not in motion at 

 the same period, cannot be successfully grafted. 

 Although in the case of the common laurel and 

 cherry an adhesion takes place, their union can- 

 not be calculated upon beyond three or four 

 years. Soft-wooded trees or plants will not 

 readily associate with hard-wooded ones ; nor 

 woody plants with such as are herbaceous ; nor 

 will annuals with perennials. 



Season of grafting. — The number of plants 

 upon which this operation is performed is so 

 great, and their constitutions and circumstances 

 so variable, that no definite period can be fixed 

 upon as a general rule. From what has been 

 said of the phenomena of the art, it will have 

 been understood that the period of operation is 

 to be entirely guided by the state of the ascent 

 of the sap. The spring, therefore, is the proper 



