SOME FALLACIES REGARDING THE CLEMATIS. 
293 
With the last of these imagined causes of dying back — namely 
grafting — I will deal at somewhat greater length. 
It has been asserted that, when Clematis are grafted on the native 
C. Vitalba, the latter being so strong, it, in time, causes the death of 
the graft, and to this are to be attributed the losses sustained. I 
entirely dissent from this statement. 
Before, however, giving my own views, I should like to quote the 
remarks of M. Morel, of Lyons, which are published in a letter — 
unfortunately left untranslated — which has recently appeared in one 
of the weekly horticultural journals. 
After having given his views on the cause of the trouble — views, 
as I shall show presently, which are in conformity with those I have 
put forward — and thus having ruled out grafting from the list of 
possible causes, M. Morel observes that " when grafted on the roots 
of C. Viticella, a union is secured, which borrows from the stock only 
temporary aid wherewith the scion forms for itself roots, on which it 
is to live." 
That this is so will be seen in the accompanying illustration 
(fig. 58), and I need scarcely add that this stock, as well as C. Vitalba, 
is used in our nurseries, and furthermore that the disease occurs no 
less when this stock — approved by M. Morel — is used than when 
C. Vitalba is employed. 
As the figure — of a two-year-old plant of C. ' Lady Londes- 
borough,' a hybrid of the patens type, grafted on C. Vitalba — shows, 
the " own roots " from the scion have developed considerably more 
than those of the stock on the left-hand side, and show no sign of 
being killed by the latter. 
In the second figure (fig. 59), which is of a plant of C. ' Lady Betty 
Balfour/ a hybrid of the Viticella type, grafted on C. Viticella, you 
will notice that, although the roots of the stock underneath have 
increased since grafting, those of the scion roots above have also 
increased to a far greater extent. 
In further illustration of the excellence of C. Viticella as a stock, 
I have here a plant of C. Jackmanni superba * (fig. 60), lifted from 
the open ground, of several years' growth, showing a considerable 
increase in the quantity of both stock and scion roots, and a growth 
of stems during the past summer of several feet. 
This also disproves the contention, which has been put forward, 
that nursery cultivation does not let the plants mature, and is not 
the best way to study the question. 
Another reason why I think that grafting is not the cause of the 
" dying off " is (as is apparent from these examples) that the plants, 
after they have formed their scion roots, are mainly supported by 
them and not by the roots of the stock. 
If grafting were the primary cause of the " dying off," it would be 
reasonable to suppose the plant will be affected from the union upwards, 
which is not so in this case. 
* The lecturer showed a plant. 
