294 



GRAFTING BY DETACHED SCIONS. 



years iii the forest of Fontainebleau, in grafting the Pinus L-aricio on the 

 P. sylv(^stris ; and many hundreds of plants of pmes and firs of different 

 kinds, and of Indian azaleas, have been so propagated at Fromont. The 

 trees thus grafted by Baron Tsehoudy may still be seen in the botanic 

 garden at Metz, and on his o\mi estate in the neighbourhood ; and these and 

 the pines at Fontainebleau prove this mode of grafting to be particulai'ly 

 applicable to the .^bietinae. The following mode of grafting the pines at 

 Fontainebleau is extracted from the second volume of the Gardener s Maga- 

 zine^ and some further observations on the practice will be found in the 

 Arhoretum Britannicum, vol. iv., p. 2129, and in the Gardener s Magazine 

 for 1841, p. 402. 



661. Grafting the Pine and Fir tribe. — The proper time for grafting pines- 

 is when the young shoots have made about three quarters of their length, 

 and are still so herbaceous as to break like a shoot of asparagus. The shoot 

 of the stock is then broken off about two inches under its terminating bud, 

 the leaves are cut or lipped off from twenty to twenty-four lines down 

 from the extremity, leaving, however, two pairs of leaves opposite and close 

 to the section of fracture, wliich leaves are of great importance to the success 

 of the graft. The shoot is then split with a very thin knife between the 

 two pairs of leaves (fig. 215), and to the depth of two inches ; the scion is 



then prepared (6), the lower part being 

 stripped of its leaves to the length of two 

 inches is cut and inserted in the usual 

 manner of cleft-grafting. They may also 

 be grafted in the lateral manner (c). The 

 graft is tied with a coarse thread of wool- 

 len, and a cap of paper is put over the 

 whole to protect it from the sun and rain. 

 At the end of fifteen days this cap is re- 

 moved, and the ligature at the end of a 

 month ; at that time also the two pairs 

 of leaves (a) which have served as nurses 

 are removed. The scions of those sorts of 

 pines which make two growths in a sea- 

 son, or, as the technical phrase is, have a 

 second sap, produce a shoot of five or six 

 inches the first year ; but those of only 

 Fig. 215. Herbaceous grafting the pine and q^^^ g^p as the Corsican pine, Weymouth 

 fir tribe. • o i • / 



pme, &c., merely ripen the wood groA\Ti 



before grafting, and fonn a strong terminating bud, which in the following 

 year produces a shoot of fifteen inches or two feet. 



We have described this mode of grafting at greater length than we other- 

 wise should have done, because it is little known in this country, and 

 because we think it ought to be adopted in a great many cases for the mul- 

 tiplication of plants now propagated with difficulty by cuttings, or reared, 

 after being so propagated, so slowly as to exhaust the patience of the propa- 

 gator or amateur. For example, the pine and fii* tribe, though they may 

 all be increased by cuttings, yet these cuttings grow very slowly, and though 

 they ultimately become good plants, many kinds as much so as if they had 

 been raised from seeds, yet if the kinds to be propagated had been grafted 

 on the points of the budding shoots of pines, or firs of five or six yeai-s' 

 growth, they would have grown with incomparably greater rapidity and 



