42 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
new hybrid by splitting buds and inserting 
a half bud each of two varieties in the 
slit sounds implausible; and yet that is 
just what this ingenious Scotchman says 
he did. 
There is a diversity of opinion as to the 
merits of Thomson’s Improved Navel, but 
all who are acquainted with it frankly con¬ 
cede that it is a distinct variety. The 
manner of its coming is immaterial, 
although there is no good reason for doubt¬ 
ing the narrative of its sponsor. Having 
placed the new orange in the race with its 
progenitors, both as regards earliness and 
quality, it occurred to Mr. Thomson that 
the next thing to be desired was a late 
navel—^^one which should lengthen the 
navel season even unto the coming of the 
Valencia. With this important possibility 
in mind our Scotchman again split buds 
taking them from the Improved Navel 
and the Late Valenicia. During a visit to 
his place recently he told me of the pro¬ 
cess and the difficulties involved. In the 
majority of cases the buds live and start, 
each half sends out an independent shoot, 
and not simultaneously. In other 
instances, even when, starting at the 
same time, they fail to unite properly in a 
perfect shoot or stem. As proof that even 
a perfect union is not necessarily produc¬ 
tive pf an improved fruit, Mr. Thomson 
showed me a freak tree, with long curved 
leaves in which olive green and white 
seemed struggling for control.' The few 
oranges on it were ribbed from stem to 
blossom end and were scarcely edible. Out 
of the many buds inserted in conjugal 
fashion from the Improved Navel and 
Late Valencia there came one tree which, 
as it stood in the nursery row, showed dis¬ 
tinct characteristics and habits of growth. 
Mr. Thomson relates that Alexander 
Craw visited his place at this time, and, 
being told that there was a tree of a new 
variety in the nursery, he went in and 
pointed it out. In due season it was set 
out in the orchard, where it now stands in 
one of two rows of its kind, these two 
rows of Navelencia extending through 
an orchard of Thomson’s Improved Na¬ 
vels of the same age. The Navelencia trees 
average about a foot higher than the Im¬ 
proved Navels. In the half-dozen years 
since it first fruited, it has become the par¬ 
ent of many trees, its progeny including 
the two rows in which it stands, as well as 
orchards and individual trees in nearly 
every orange growing section throughout 
the world.” "‘As regards lateness, it 
should be stated that the conditions of the 
fruit on the young trees about Highland 
and Redlands indicates that in this climate 
it promises to partially make good Mr. 
Thomson’s original claim and to length¬ 
en the navel season by at least a few 
weeks.” As further evidence of the 
feasibility of split bud grafting I will 
quote from an address delivered by Pro¬ 
fessor N. F. Murray before the annual 
meeting of the Kansas Horticultural So¬ 
ciety : 
‘‘Several years ago we began to experi¬ 
ment in hybrid grafting. We worked on 
apple, pear, and plum, root-grafting in the 
usual manner, except we cut out all the 
buds from the scion to be grafted, then 
split from end to end and with a sharp 
knife cut through the center of the top 
bud. Then Taking two half scions of two 
different varieties we spliced them to¬ 
gether, knowing full well that the desired 
union or cross of the two varieties must be 
accomplished by a union of the two buds. 
In part of our work we simply split the 
buds, always using a very sharp knife and 
a magnifying glass, and taking great care 
and pains, wrapping with fine thread and 
