200 CULTIVATION. 



plants, both in the hot-house and elsewhere, may 

 be propagated in this manner. 



Working exotic plants, whether by graft or 

 bud, has not been practised in this country so 

 much perhaps as it should be ; not, however, 

 for the object of increasing the kinds, but for 

 another purpose, viz. predisposing the plants to 

 yield their flow^ers, or fruit, earlier than they 

 otherwise do. The effect of working plants is 

 well known. A grafted or budded tree is ren- 

 dered less vigorous in habit, and consequently 

 sooner arrives at that stage of its existence in 

 which it shews flowers and fruit. A graft, at- 

 tached to a suitable and congenial stock, has no 

 period of youth to go through. The scion is or 

 may be taken from the already matured branches. 

 It is doing in the vegetable world what is seldom 

 practicable in the moral ; viz. *' putting an old 

 head on young shoulders." This we invariably 

 do with our fruits ; and why may it not be done 

 with our flowering plants? A seedling Camellia, 

 for instance, will not flower in less than three or 

 four, whereas a graft will flower in one or two 



