Chap. 24.] 
VAEIOUS KIIS^DS OF GEAITTIK^a 
479 
middle of the tree, and the grafts are accordingly taken from 
thence : the upper part being comparatively dry. The graft 
takes most easily in a tree, the bark of which is of a similar 
nature to its own, and which, blossoming at the same time as 
itself, has an affinity with it in the development of the natural 
juices. On the other hand, the process of uniting is but slow 
where the dry is brought in contact with the moist, and the 
hard bark with the soft. 
The other points to be observed are the following : the inci- 
sion must not be made in a knot, as such an inhospitable rigidity 
will certainly repel the stranger plant ; the incision should be 
made, too, in the part which is most compact, and it must not 
be much more than three fingers in length, not in a slanting 
direction, nor yet such as to pierce the tree from side to side. 
VirgiP"^ is cf opinion, that the grafts should not be taken from the 
top, and it is universally agreed that it is best to select them from 
the shoulders of the tree which look towards the north-east 
from a tree, too, that is a good bearer, and from a young shoot, 
unless, indeed, the graft is intended for an old tree, in which 
case it should be of a more robust growth. In addition to this, 
the graft ought to be in a state of impregnation, that is to say, 
swelling^' with buds, and giving every promise of bearing the 
same year ; it ought, too, to be two years old, and not thinner 
than the little finger. The graft is inserted at the smaller 
end, when it is the object of the grower that it should not 
grow to any considerable length, but spread out on either side. 
Eut it is more particularly necessary that the buds upon the 
graft should be smooth and regular, and there must be nothing 
upon it at all scabbed or shrivelled. Success may be fully 
reckoned on if the pith of the graft is brought in contact with 
the wood and bark of the stock ; that being a much better plan 
than merely uniting them bark to bark. In pointing the graft, 
13 This remark is founded on sound notions of vegetable physiology ; 
but at the same time it is contradictory to what he states in the sequel as 
to grafting the pear on the plane, the apple on the cornel, &c. 
Georg. ii. 78. 
15 An unnecessary precaution. It is not the situation of the branches 
so much as the nature of the soil, traversed by the roots, corresponding to 
them, that would be likely to have an influence on the graft. There is 
little doubt that Pliny borrowed the present passage from Columella, De 
Re Eust. V. 11 ; and De Arbor. 20. 
1^ This is sound advice. See B. xvi. c. 39, 40, and 41. 
