1912. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
LJeil 
Ruralisms 
NEW POTATO VARIETIES FROM 
GRAFTING. 
0. B. S.j Wayne Co., N. Y .—Is it practical 
to graft one variety of potato upon another 
variety, thereby getting a new and improved 
potato? I have a friend who has suc¬ 
ceeded in grafting the old Peachblow upon 
the Rural New-Yorker and has obtained a 
very fine potato, “Sterling,” named in honor 
of this township. The new potato is a 
product of the Rural grown through a 
Peachblow eye. It has the strong- vigor¬ 
ous top and light pink blossom of the latter, 
with none of its straggling propensities to 
scatter its tubers all over the row, but 
bunches them in the hill like the Rural. It 
is a smooth, white round potato, rounder 
than the Rural, which has a tendency to be 
oblate, of good quality and uniform size. 
No Change Through Grafting.— 
The possiblity of producing hybrid 
plants, partaking of the qualities of both 
parents by grafting one species or vari¬ 
ety upon another has been long debated 
and is strenuously denied by most pro¬ 
pagators, who consider the millions of 
nursery trees thus propagated with no 
resulting change in the respective 
characters of stock and scion or bud. A, 
Bartlett pear remains a Bartlett pear 
though worked on quince roots, French 
or Chinese pear seedlings or any other 
variety with which it will unite. A 
Baldwin apple continues to produce 
Baldwin apples if grafted or budded on 
any other variety or species of apple 
and even should the union prove effi¬ 
cient and lasting, on Amelanchier or 
service berry or mountain ash stocks. 
The Elberta peach continues to hold its 
character whether on the root of cling¬ 
stone or free, white or yellow-fleshed, 
early or late ripening seedling peaches, 
almond, apricot or any of a dozen 
species of plum with which it may unite. 
The tomato may be grafted on the po¬ 
tato and thus a mongrel plant be de¬ 
veloped bearing edible tubers under¬ 
ground and edible scarlet fruits above, 
or the process may be reversed and 
aerial potatoes borne in the axils of the 
potato foliage above, while the tomato 
roots supply the nourishment. In either 
case the tomato and potato tissues re¬ 
main true to their kind, and if cuttings 
are rooted from either at once become 
characteristic plants. The tomato fruits 
and foliage on the grafted plant are at 
all times normal and the potato tubers, 
whether borne above or in the soil are 
identical in character, except from the 
natural changes caused by exposure to 
sunlight in the former instance. The 
rule of no perceptible change holds good 
in the overwhelming majority of instan¬ 
ces of plants propagated by budding, 
grafting or inarching on allied stocks. 
What changes do occur in the respective 
growths of scion and stock may 
usually be explained by the greater or 
less interruption of nutrition at l(he 
place of union. The individual cells of 
the varieties concerned determine the 
varietal character, and while in inti¬ 
mate vital contact do not ordinarily 
intermingle in growth. Thus, of the 
pear above and the quince below, each 
retains its own individuality though co¬ 
operating in mutual development, as 
can be seen in any orchard. 
Some Exceptions. —This is the normal 
condition in which all “nurse-plant” 
propagation, so inestimably valuable to 
horticulture, and by which all varie¬ 
ties of trees, shrubs and plants that are 
unable to develop roots under ordinary 
circumstances from their own tissues 
are preserved and increased, but in rare 
instances, however, and from causes lit¬ 
tle understood, the varietal cells in 
graft union do unite in producing a new 
growth having hybrid characteristics. 
Thus Laburnum Adami, having at 
times both yellow and purple flowers 
and extremely varied foliage, came as 
a veritable graft hybrid in the form of 
a sprout from the union of Cytisus 
purpureus, with purple blooms, 
worked on the yellow flowered “golden 
chain” tree, Laburnum vulgare. Usually 
L. Adami is intermediate in character 
like _ an ordinary hybrid, but at times 
carries blooms and foliage of both par¬ 
ents. More recently two exceed¬ 
ingly interesting graft hybrid have 
sprung from the rather imperfect union 
of the hawthorn Crataegus Oxyacantha, 
grafted on the medlar, Mespilus ger- 
manica. This occurred in a French 
nursery and was first noticed in 1894 . 
The new varieties originated as 
branches just at the edge of the union 
and when propagated developed into 
exceedingly distinct and handsome 
ornamental trees, having foliage, blooms 
and fruit quite intermediate between 
the parents. They are known as Cra- 
taego-mespilus Davdari and C.—M. 
Asnieresii, from localities near which 
they originated. 
Hybrid Nightshade. —Observing .that 
these and other excessively rare 
graft-hybrids arose from the graft- 
union in every instance Herr Winkler, 
a German investigator, has produced a 
number of extraordinary graft hybrids 
—which from their monstrous and dis¬ 
torted growth he has given the signifi¬ 
cant name of Chimieras—between the 
cultivated tomato and the black night¬ 
shade, Solanum nigrum, the “Wonder- 
berry” of recent exploitation. He 
grafted together young seedlings of 
these diverse species and when iirmly 
united, amputated the plants through 
the unions. Sprouts started out from 
the severed callus, some having the 
true characters of one or the other of 
the parents, but others plainly showing 
hybrid characteristics. These were prop¬ 
agated by being rooted as cuttings or 
grafted on other seedlings and allowed 
to develop into individual plants. They 
fell into two classes, one having the 
tissues of either the nightshade or to¬ 
mato in the center of the plant, while 
the skin or epidermis, including the 
foliage and external parts of the 
flowers, were composed of the other 
species. In other words there were 
plants with nightshade tissue inside and 
tomato skin and foliage outside and 
vice versa. These characteristics were 
easily determined, as the tomato has 
rough, hairy foliage and skin, while 
similar parts of nightshade are smooth. 
When seeds are produced by these 
mongrels they give rise to offspring 
identical with the species having internal 
tissue of the plant in question, unless 
there should be a double layer or coat¬ 
ing outside when the seedlings follow 
the external parent. This has happened 
in a few instances. These Chimseras 
are known as Solanum tubigense and 
are being carefully investigated. The 
other form has been named S. Darwin- 
ianum and appears to be an intimate 
mixture, all through, of the cells of 
both tomato and nightshade. 
Principle of Graft Hybrids. —These 
instances show that graft-hybrids, corn- 
parable to those produced by fusing the 
ovule germs and pollen cells of diverse 
plants in seed production, are possible, 
though astonishingly few in number. 
We have heard much of the production 
of new potatoes and Dahlias by graft¬ 
ing the tubers of different varieties to¬ 
gether and of new tree fruits arising 
from tying splint buds together and 
propagating the resulting sprouts, but 
no authentic instances have been 
brought forward. It appears to be 
granted that where the tissues of dif¬ 
ferent varieties are mingled in a graft- 
union a growing point may appear com¬ 
bining the living cells of two varieties 
or species, and thus a Chimaera or mo¬ 
saic hybrid results. In the case of the 
potato “eye” or bud of one variety em¬ 
bedded in the tuber of another, if the 
union should chance to be mutilated 
and a new bud or growing point form 
it is conceivable that cells from the 
host tuber might be captured and de¬ 
veloped with ihose derived from tue 
grafted “eye” and a hybrid variety 
ensue. This is possibly what has hap¬ 
pened in the case mentioned by O. B. S., 
but the probabilities are altogether that 
it is only one of the many instances of 
bud sporting or mutation that are con¬ 
stantly ocurring in potatoes and other 
highly cultivated plants. v. 
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