304 



BUDDING OR GRAFTING BY DETACHED BUDS. 



hand, and entering the point of the knife at the under extremity of the 

 shield, and between it and the thumb ; and then raising and draAving out 

 the wood by a double motion outwards from the bark, and downwards from 

 the upper to the lower extremity of the shield. The bud being now pre- 

 pared, as at c, the bark on each side of the slit in the stock is raised up by 

 the spatula end of the budding-knife, and the shield inserted beneath it ; its 

 upper part being cut straight across, as at so as to admit of its joining 

 accurately with the inner bark of the stock, as at e, so as to receive its 

 descending sap. A bandage of soft matting is now applied, so as to exclude 

 the air from the wounded parts, and to show only the bud and the petiole, 

 as at /, and the operation is complete. At /, the bud is shown developing 

 its leaves, and at g it has produced a shoot of some length, which is tied for 

 a short time to the upper part of the stock ; but that part of the latter 

 which is shown by dotted lines is cut off in July. 



The portion of wood left attached to the base of the bud should 

 generally be about a third of the length of the shield ; the latter being 

 from an inch to an inch and a half in length, and the eye should be 

 situated about a third from the top. Spines, prickles, and leaves should 

 be carefully cut off or shortened. Sometimes in taking out the splinter of 

 wood from the scion, which is done with a quick, jerking motion, the base 

 of the bud which is woody is torn out also, leaving a small cavity, instead 

 of an even surface ; the surface, when the bud is in a proper state, being 

 either quite even, or only gently raised above the surrounding bark, in 

 consequence of the woody base of the bud being left in. When the woody base 

 of the bud has been torn out, so as to leave a cavity, it is safest not to use the 

 bud, but to prepare another ; though when the cavity left is not very deep, 

 and a small portion of wood is seen in it, the bud will sometimes grow. 

 Only those buds must be taken from the scion that are nearly mature ; 

 which is readily known both by the size of the bud and by the full expan- 

 sion and firm texture of the disk of the leaf, in the axil of which it grows. 



680. Shield-budding in June.—Roses of some kinds may be budded at 

 almost any period from June to October. In budding in June, Dr. Van 

 Mons first deprives the young shoots, from which he proposes to take buds, 

 of their leaves, and fifteen days afterwards he finds the buds sufficiently 

 swelled to allow of their being taken off and inserted. The shoots from 

 such buds frequently flower the same year ; but this may be rendered certain 

 by pruning off all the branches of the stock. A rose scion is, he says, 

 seldom too dry to take, if the woody base of the bud be left about a third 

 of the length of the shield, as there is then a portion of the alburnum of the 

 scion, as well as a portion of its inner bark, brought into close contact with 

 the alburnum of the stock. Dr. Van Mons has budded successfully from 

 rose-cuttings that had remained in a drawer fourteen days. 



681. Shield-budding in spring may be exemplified by the Belgian prac- 

 tice with the rose. For this purpose, scions are cut before winter, and 

 stuck into the ground till the moment in spring when the bark of the stock 

 will rise, or, technically speaking, run. To prepare the bud, a transverse 

 cut should be first made into the wood, a little below an eye (fig. 238, a), 

 which incision is met by a longer cut downwards, commencing at a short 

 distance above the eye (6), care being taken that a portion of wood is 

 removed with the bark (c). The bud is then inserted into the bark of the 

 stock which is cut like an inverted T (rf), and the horizontal edges of the 



