PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING. 



335 



it ; when placed, c, it is tied with soft matting, 

 and clayed or waxed over in the usual man- 

 ner. If the plant which supplies the scions be 

 scarce, then one bud may be used instead of 

 three. In selecting the tubers for this purpose, 

 barren ones — that is, those having no visible 

 eyes — are as good, if not possibly better, than 

 those which have them. By this means dahlias 

 may be multiplied largely, as every tuber is suit- 

 able for a stock, while only the crown of the 

 whole root produces cuttings. 



Grafting annual and perennial plants is pos- 

 sible ; we have yet, however, we confess, to learn 

 its utility. 



Expeditious grafting. — In nurseries and large 

 plant establishments every means to secure stock 

 of a new or rare plant is of vast importance ; 

 and hence many ways have been tried to effect 

 this end. Heat, moisture, shade, and slow excite- 

 ment are the necessary conditions, and hence 

 the operation is going on at all seasons, and the 

 success attending it, in judicious hands, is truly 

 astonishing. For as soon as a new plant is pro- 

 cured, an almost certain calculation is made ac- 

 cording to the number of leaves or buds on it, 

 that in a few weeks as many plants will be pro- 

 duced as there are leaves or buds on the original. 

 The French adopt a very appropriate name for 

 this species of propagation ; they designate it 

 Greffe ttoufee, or stifled graft, from the process 

 being carried on under closely-covered bell- 

 glasses to exclude the air. The plants, being 

 small, are in pots plunged in bottom heat, and 

 in this state they are kept until a union takes 

 place. Almost every first-rate propagator has 

 his own way of putting on his grafts, or rather 

 buds ; for, as we have said, every bud is made 

 available, and expected to produce a perfect 

 plant. The cleft form is often adopted, but 

 almost any of the others, under judicious modi- 

 fications, are equally applicable. Great care is, 

 however, taken that the scion or bud be placed 

 on the stock near to a bud, and this bud must 

 be scrupulously preserved, as on that much of 

 the success depends. When the bud or scion is 

 placed on the stock, it is secured with a soft 

 worsted, cotton, or other thread, and the place 

 of union, as well as the top of the stock not 

 covered with the scion, is covered with a thin 

 coating of grafting-wax. Sometimes, however, 

 a little moistened cotton or fine moss is used as 

 a substitute. As the moisture arising under the 

 bell-glass would soon become too great for the 

 plant in its yet tender state, that covering is fre- 

 quently removed, and wiped clear of the con- 

 densed steam; air is admitted, after the first three 

 or four days, by little and little at a time, until 

 the union has taken place, when it is more abun- 

 dantly supplied, and ultimately the glass is re- 

 moved altogether. The principal thing required 

 in this delicate operation is neatness in execu- 

 tion, and rigid attention to the conditions we 

 have named above. 



Grafting Coniferce. — Somewhere about 3Q>years 

 ago, the Baron Tschudy practised the grafting 

 of the Pinus laricio on the common Scotch fir 

 in the forest of Fontainebleau ; a description of 

 his method has been published in " The Gar- 

 deners' Magazine." Various modes have since 



Fig. 110. 



been adopted in Britain, in consequence of the 

 increasing popularity of that natural order of 

 trees, the difficulty of procuring seeds of many 

 of them, and the increasing demand for their 

 possession. Engrafting the Coniferse, which a 

 very few years ago was looked upon as requir- 

 ing skill little short of necromancy, has now be- 

 come an every-day affair in every respectable 

 nursery establishment. The rationale, however, 

 of Tschudy's theory is no doubt the foundation 

 of most of our modern manipulations. The pine 

 and fir tribe is successfully grafted about the 

 middle of June, at which time the young shoots 

 will have attained somewhat more than half 

 their year's growth. An inch or two of the top 

 of the shoot, the leader being preferred, should 

 be cut off; the leaves to the extent of 3 inches 

 should be cut off, leaving, however, a pair of 

 leaves, fig. 1 1 0, opposite and 

 close to the section or point 

 where the shoot was cut 

 over : these, being retained, 

 will draw nourishment to 

 the extremity of the stock 

 before the scion becomes 

 fully attached. The shoot 

 is then split down between 

 the pair of leaves to the 

 depth of 2 inches, and the 

 scion, which, in our example, 

 is that of Abies morinda 

 (the stock being Pinus 

 cembra), having its lower 

 leaves cut off, and a thin 

 portion of its sides pared 

 off, is inserted to the. full 

 depth of the incision in the 

 stock, in the same manner 

 as in cleft-grafting. When 

 the scion is much smaller 

 than the stock, as in our 

 example, the scion is kept 

 close to the side of the 

 stock, so that the bark of 

 both may unite. Two scions, 

 one on each side, may be 

 put on, one of which may 

 be cut away afterwards, 

 should both take — the two 

 giving a double chance of 

 success. 



The usual process of tying 

 the graft and claying com- 

 pletes the operation, or, in 

 the case of feeble subjects, 

 grafting-wax may be em- 

 ployed as a substitute for 

 clay. 



Fig. Ill shows a variety 

 of wedge or side grafting, 

 we believe first practised by 

 Mr Barron at Elveston, and 

 successfully employed in the 

 case of coniferous trees. The 

 scion in our example, fig. 112, 

 is the Deodar cedar, and the 

 stock the Pinus cembra. Mr 

 Barron used the cedar of 

 Lebanon as a stock. He also used scions of 



GRAFTING CONIFERS. 



Fig. 111. 



SIDE-GRAFTING 

 CONIFERS. 



