GKAFTING; ITS CONSEQUENCES AND EFFECTS. 151 
Laird, and Laing for the opportunity of examining a whole series 
of such plants thus changed. To show that the variegation was 
really due to the influence of the scion, we may mention a curious 
fact communicated to us by M. Van Houtte, the well-known 
nurseryman of Ghent. Like his compeers he had plenty of illus- 
trations of the fact that a variegated scion of this particular 
Abutilon will communicate its properties to the stock on which 
it may be grafted, but he further ascertained that if by some 
accident the graft were separated from the stock, the leaves sub- 
sequently produced from the latter were wholly green, as before 
the grafting, and even the variegated leaves originally produced 
lost their mottled character. Our illustration shows a plant of 
the variegated Abutilon grafted on to another species of the 
same genus, which under ordinary circumstances produces green 
leaves, but which in consequence of the grafting has formed 
variegated leaves. Variegated willows have been known to 
affect the stock on which they are grafted in the same way, and 
also, but not constantly, the purple-leaved nut. 
Here is another striking illustration of the effect of the scion 
on the stock. Two 64 canes ” of a particular vine, called 44 Black 
Prince,” were growing side by side in a vinery, and adjacent to 
them another grape known as 44 Lady Downe’s Seedling.” Mr. 
Smythe, who relates the case , 44 inarched ” the last-named vine on 
to one of the canes of the 44 Black Prince,” leaving the other 
cane untouched. A great change resulted in the appearance of 
the engrafted cane of the 44 Black Prince.” In the first place it 
did not begin to grow so soon by fourteen days as its fellow 
cane ; its leaves were smaller, its shoots shorter, and its bunches 
of fruit much shorter and smaller. These illustrations will 
probably be sufficient to show that the scion does affect the 
stock upon which it grows. 
Belying on such cases as these some botanists have broached 
the theory of graft-hybridisation to account for certain anomalous 
appearances. If the pollen of one flower be applied to the stigma 
of another under certain conditions and within certain limits, a 
44 cross ” or hybrid production results, in which are blended in 
very varying degrees the characteristics of both parents. How, 
it is contended by some that a similar blending takes place in the 
case of grafted plants, and that buds may occasionally be produced 
on such grafted plants partaking in varying degrees of the 
characters of both graft-parents. Others again deny the possi- 
bility of the occurrence, especially practical men, who, seeing 
in their daily practice that instances such as we have cited are 
exceptional, and that in the majority of cases stock and scion 
remain unaffected save in minor points, give a different inter- 
pretation to such facts as we have been commenting on, or 
content themselves with leaving them unexplained. 
