CHAP. IV.] 
GRAFTING. 
109 
that cannot so easily be continued by seed, 
and that will not strike by cuttings. There 
is, however, another use nearly as important; 
and this is to make plants flower and fruit 
sooner than they would otherwise do. 'There 
are many plants that only flower at the ex¬ 
tremity of their shoots; and these plants, 
when tender, would require enormous plant- 
houses before they would be thrown into 
flower or fruit. To remedy this inconveni¬ 
ence, a method has been devised of cutting 
off the tips of the shoots and grafting them; 
and then, after they have grown for some 
time, cutting off the tips again and regrafting 
them, by means of which flowers are at 
length produced on plants of quite a small 
size. The same method is applied in Paris 
to rare fruit-trees to throw them into fruit; 
and it has been tried with success with the 
rose-apple (Eugenia Jambos), the mango, 
&c. In common nurseries, the fruit of new 
seedling apples is obtained much sooner by 
grafting than by leaving the plant to nature; 
and this plan is also practised at Brussels by 
Prof. Van Mons, to test his seedling-pears. 
