April 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
55 
with ripe juice, that juice would turn the sport back to 
the normal condition. If a sport can he rooted from a 
cutting, there is no juice but that of the sport itself to 
cause any difference, and the chances are fair that the 
sport is at once secured. Now we almost know that the 
flowers of the Peach, the Almond, and such like, which 
come before the leaves, like those of this Cyclonia 
japonica, do take up a good deal of the sap which was 
resting in the roots all the previous winter; we know, 
also, that as soon as this sap is up to help the flowers a 
fresh supply of sap is gathered by the youngest roots 
immediately, and that that sap or juice is much thinner, 
and quite different from the old sap which is ripe; in 
short, after the winter store of sap is drawn up for 
young growth in the spring, whether it bo for making 
flowers, or leaves and shoots, or both, all the new sap 
which conies after it for the rest of the season is 
very watery, and the smaller the roots are the faster , 
they part with the ripe and receive the watery juice; 
then, the more watery the juice is the less likely it will 
be to cause the sport to go back to the old condition of 
the parent plant; so that there is a reason for all that I 
have said and suggested for this sport; there is, also, one 
comfort belonging to the whole, that is, if my surmises 
are not right, and as I take them to be, there is not a 
man alive who can prove it wrong by actual facts, or 
by reference to recorded experiments the other way. 
Grafting on the roots differs nothing from grafting on [ 
the branches; it may be done in any of the usual ways, 
and for a make-shift on the spur of the moment, it is I 
one of the most convenient things possible; hundreds of 
pot plants are increased every year by root-grafting. 
Just as the last sentence was written, a letter from a 
titled lady was placed before me, beginning thus,—“I j 
have grafted some shoots of Perpetual Roses, last 
February, on the roots of some old stocks from the 
hedge rows, and put them in a cucumber frame, re¬ 
moving them, as soon as the shoots were started, to a 
greenhouse; they are now strong and healthy plants, 
with young shoots eighteen inches long, some have 
flowered, and some have not,” &c. Here, then, is a 
proof on the spot. There is no surer way of getting 
Roses up in a hurry, than that pursued by this lady. 
When Smith’s Yellow China Rose came out first, 1 knew 
a nurseryman who made a half-guinea plant of every 
bud on his first-purchased plant of it in six weeks, and 
one of the lot 1 bought myself, and that was the first 
root-grafted Rose I ever saw. If he had gone the round¬ 
about way of budding his buds, his plants would not 
have been ready for sale that season; or, if he had made 
cuttings of them, he would not have had half the 
number of plants, besides waiting six or eight months 
when the price was down one half. 
The way to graft buds is to take the top bud first, 
with all the stalk below it to the next bud, and so on as 
long as the joints are long enough to handle. The 
piece of wood below the bud is cut like a wedge on the 
opposite side to the hud, and this cut part is slipped down 
between the rind and the wood of the root, very much 
like the way of budding, only in this grafting the bud 
is just above the cut end of the root. A iii.ee Myrtle 
might be got by root-grafting in one month. A healthy 
Myrtle is a wonderful plant for making roots, and a 
piece of root taken from the outside of the ball, though 
not thicker than common packing twine, will do to 
graft a shoot ten inches long on; if this is put into a hot¬ 
bed, and kept from the sun, the plant is finished in the 
time stated. The roots of the old common China Rose 
are the best I know for grafting all kinds of Roses on, 
and they will stand more bottom-heat than the Pine 
Apple; or, if the graft fails, you can put another and 
another before these roots get tired of the heat. 
The common evergreen, Berberis faciculata, is in 
almost every garden, and its roots might be used 
extensively for grafting tho new sorts on. It is as 
hardy as the Oak, and would make large plants of such 
as Darwinii in a quarter of the time they take on their 
own roots; but we must recollect there is out-doing 
the work even with root-grafting. If a very dwarf 
plant—a Fairy Rose, for instance—were to be grafted 
on the roots of Blairii, or on the roots of the Doy Rose, 
the plant would soon dwindle from the great difference 
between the strength of the root and graft. All the 
variegated, new, and curious Yews, graft better on the 
roots of the common Yew than on plants of tbe same; I 
and it is the same with Beeches, which are very difficult 
to graft. No plant succeeds better by grafting on its 
own roots than the new Dielytra spectabilis, and it makes 
long-fanged roots for that purpose. Dahlias may bo 
grafted, with the greatest ease, on long, slender pieces 
of their own roots; and so may all the Pceonies. The 
Tree Pceony is so grafted, but it is difficult to manage. 
Australia is the place where root-graftiug would be 
most valuable, where proper stocks are, probably, scarce. 
A Peach or Apricot would grow there much better on 
its own roots than on the Plum-stocks we use in this 
country; they would also grow on the Almond there 
better than outlie Plum-stock; this has been already 
proved in Italy and in the south of France. It is only 
because of our cold soil that we use the hardy Plum to 
graft on. But it is for summer grafting, and particu¬ 
larly for grafting sported shoots on during the summer, 
when the juices are very watery in the roots, that I look 
upon root-grafting as of the utmost value. Every season 
shows us the value, more and more, of looking after 
sports, and we can never secure them too soon. Sup¬ 
pose a Cabbage Rose to exhibit a branch with a varie¬ 
gated flower, or with any particular variatiou from the 
old sort, a bud of it ought immediately to be inserted in 
another Rose for stock, or in a Wild Rose; but suppose 
this to be done late in tbe season, and that the stock so 
used has all the shoots nearly ripe, there are two chances 
against the sport—the first is, that the bark will not 
“rise,” owing to the ripeness; and the second, that the 
ripeness itself is not so favourable for securing the sport 
| in its real character as unripeness, or what the physio- 
i logists call organised sap; there is very little, indeed, of 
this ripe or organised matter found in the smaller roots 
j of any plant during the time of active summer growth, 
I hence their greater value for grafting sports on; and 
after two such wet seasons, and this very dry and pecu¬ 
liar spring, we may expect to see or hear of more sports 
than for many years past. D. Beaton. 
LOOKING AROUND US. 
The very best gardeners should now and then see 
what their neighbours are doing. I never have entered 
a garden, however small or neglected, that I did not 
pick up a useful lesson, pointing to an admonition or a 
warning. With all our happy, social feeling, we now 
and then get into a grumbling mood. A worthy friend 
of ours, when you speak highly of some fine object, j 
drawls out a Y r -e-s, as if it pained him ; and, before you j 
are aware, brings you down from your stilts, and fairly I 
souses you over head and ears in the waters of some j 
disappointment and disaster. The world has quite 
enough of trouble in it without continually contem- ; 
plating its dark shades. These cold, wet blanketers 
are as destructive to all buoyant joyousuess within 
their reach, as an army of Don Cossacks would be. on 
entering one of our peaceful villages. I stumbled into 
a place the other day which would have done more to 
shame manv of our croakers and grumblers than a 
whole bevy of homilies on patience and contentment. 
Just imagine a splendid kitchen-garden, of some four or 
more acres, walled all round, tho quarters rather rough, 
