§h4 ^ardmer'a <plonthIs. 



PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1867. 



t3=" Ail Communications for the Editor should be addressed, 

 "Thomas Meehax, Germautown, P]uladelphia,"and Business Let. 

 ters directed to "W. G. P. Brinckloe, Box Philadelphia." 



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THE INFLUENCE CF THE GRAFT ON 

 THE STOCK. 



This is a question like unto which few seldom 

 occurs, that is to say one of* importance ahke to the 

 practical man and to the man of science. It has 

 been universally believed that there is no such in- 

 fluence, and to this day only a few of the most pro- 

 gressive minds see an affirmative tendency in the 

 question. Day by day, however, the evidence ac- 

 cumulates ; and we entertain no doubt, now that 

 attention is well directed to the subject, numerous 

 observers will record facts proving beyond doubt 

 that the influence on the j^tock is of the most posi- 

 tive character. 



Several nurserymen have assured us that in dig- 

 ging up rows of apple trees, each variety will have 

 its own style of roots, although the stocks be of the 

 most diverse character, and we remember a cor- 

 respondent in our paper some years back giving a 

 detailed account of some observations of this kind; 

 though, unfoitunately, under some other heading 

 it cannot be traced through our index. Mr. Adams 

 also gives similar facts in our present number. 



But after all there are few more curious illustra- 

 tions of this view of thmgs than Mr. S tough's Pear 

 sprout from a mountain ash stock, an illustration 

 of which we give herewith, showing the pear sprout 

 seven inches below the graft on the mountain ash 

 stock. 



As some well versed in natural philosophy have 

 considered it impossible that this pear should come 

 out so far below the graft, Mr. S. has got a neigh- 

 boring nurseryman to give us an account of it, 

 whose report is clear as to the fact. 



It is very dangerous, in the present state of our 

 knowledge of the developments for any one to speak 

 positively about the "laws of form," or how they 

 operate. We see every day what are called "freaks 

 of form," — freaks which we look to "accidental ex- 

 ternal causes" for the origin. But, it is evident 

 these external causes, can only develop pre-existing 

 germs ; and these germs always develop in one uni- 



form way. The gall fly, does not make the gall, it 

 is only the instrument of its development. Hence the 

 peculiar form of the gall is the special prerogative 

 of the plant, not the work of the insect, as if it 

 were a bird making a nest. These seeds of form 

 appear to reside in the cells, and perhaps may per- 

 meate the whole plants system, finding its easiest 

 but not sole source of development through the 

 seeds reproducing the individual plant. 



Some years ago there was in the garden of the 

 late C. J. Wister, of this place a tree of the curled 

 leaf willow, [Salixhah. annularis) perhaps 20 years 

 old. Then a branch strong and vigorous of the 

 common weeping willow pushed out from near the 

 top of the tree. Now it is evident the plant could 

 only do this by a form seed or cell remaining in the 

 curled leaf sprout at the original change and which 

 must have floated in z> dormant state through the 

 circulation for so many years. 



How this is all accomplished we know nothing at 

 all ; but we see enough to show us, that there are 

 many hidden mysteries, which we may perhaps 

 someday be permitted to unravel ; but which for the 

 present should make us very cautions about pro- 



