THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Decembek 27, 1859. 
more frequently to the Peach and Apricot upon stocks of the 
slower-growing Plums. It is highly important, therefore, to 
employ stocks the growth of which is as nearly similar as may 
be to that of the parent of the buds or scion. 
Fig, 2. 
Fig. 2. d Stem of a Paper Birch {Betula papyracea), smooth-barked. 
e The stock of the White Birch (Betula alia), rough-barked, showing 
that although the barks unite perfectly, yet'that they do advance beyond 
the scar over the place of union. 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 3. a The Pavia lutea, never exceeding the stature of a shrub. 
b The stock of the common Horse-Chestnut on which the scion w as cleft- 
grafted. It is observable in this instance that the stem of the Pavia at the 
point of junction (e) is expanded by the stock to which it is attached. 
Here, again, the barks remain perfectly distinct. 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 4. d The White Lime tree {Tilin alba). 
e The stock of the common Lime or Linden tree (Till a Furopoaa). Here, 
each retains, with but a slight enlargement, its own rate of growth. 
Tire earlier vegetation of tlie stock than of the bud or graft is 
also important; for if these are earliest in development they are 
apt to be exhausted and die before the flow of sap has enabled 
granulation and union between the faces of the wounds at the 
junction to occur. Mr. Knight’s observations upon this point 
are the results of experience, and are so consonant with the sug¬ 
gestions of science that we will quote them in his own words with¬ 
out comment:— 
“ The practice of grafting the Pear tree on the Quince stock, 
and the Peach and Apricot on the Plum, where extensive growth 
195 
and durability are wanted, is wrong; but it is eligible wherever 
it is wished to diminish the vigour and growth of the tree, and 
where its durability is not thought important. The last remark 
applies chiefly to the Moorpark Apricot—the Abricot-peche, or 
Abricot de Nancy of the French. 
“ When great difficulty occurs in making a tree, whether fructi¬ 
ferous or ornamental, of any species or variety, produce blossoms, 
or in making its blossoms set when produced, success, probably, 
will be obtained by budding or grafting upon a stock nearly 
enough allied to the graft to preserve it alive for a few years, but 
not permanently. The Pear tree affords a stock of this kind to 
the Apple, and I have obtained a heavy crop of Apples from a 
graft inserted in a tall Pear stock only twenty months previously, 
when every blossom of the same variety of fruit in the orchard 
was destroyed by frost. The fruit thus obtained was perfect 
externally, and possessed all its ordinary qualities ; but the cores 
were black, and without a single seed ; and every blossom, cer¬ 
tainly, would have fallen abortively if it had been growing upon 
its native stock. The graft perished the winter following. 
“ My own experience induces me to think very highly of the 
excellence of the Apricot stock for the Peach or Nectarine; but 
whenever that or the Plum stock is employed, I am confident the 
bud cannot be inserted too near the ground if vigorous and 
durable trees are required. 
“ The form and habit which a Peach tree of any given variety 
is disposed to assume are very much influenced by the kind of 
stock on which it is budded. If upon a Plum or Apricot stock 
its stem will increase in size considerably as its base approaches 
the stock, and it will be much disposed to emit many lateral 
shoots, as always occurs in trees whose stems taper considerably 
upwards. Consequently, such a tree will be more disposed to 
spread itself horizontally than to ascend to the top of the wall, 
even when a single stem is suffered to stand perpendicularly. 
On the contrary, where a Peach is budded upon a stock of some 
cultivated variety of its own species, the stock and the budded 
stem remain very nearly of the same size at the point of junction, 
as well as above and below. No obstacle is presented to the 
ascent or descent of the sap, which appears to arise more abun¬ 
dantly to the summit of the tree. It appears, also, to flow 
more freely into the slender branches which have been the 
bearing wood of preceding years; and these extend, conse¬ 
quently, very widely compared with the bulk of the stock and 
large branches. 
“ When a stock of the same species, with the graft or bud, but 
of a variety far less changed by cultivation, is employed, its effects 
are very nearly allied to those produced by a stock of another 
species or genus. The graft generally overgrows its stock; but 
the form and durability of the tree generally are less affected 
than by a stock of a different species or genus. Many gardeners 
entertain an opinion that the stock communicates a portion of its 
own power to bear cold without injury to the species or variety 
of fruit which is grafted upon it: but I have ample reason to 
believe that this opinion is wholly erroneous ; and this kind of 
hardiness in the root alone never can be a quality of any value in 
a stock ; for the branches of every species of tree are much more 
easily destroyed by frost than its roots. 
“ Many believe, also, that a Peach tree when grafted upon its 
native stock very soon perishes; but my experience does not 
further support this conclusion than that it proves seedling Peach 
trees, when growing in a very rich soil, to be greatly injured and 
often killed by the excessive use of the pruning-knife upon their 
branches when these are confined to too narrow limits. I think the 
stock in this instance can only act injuriously by supplying more 
nutriment than can be expended: for the root which Nature 
gives to each seedling plant must be well, if not best, calculated 
for its support; and the chief general conclusions which my 
experience has enabled me to draw safely are that a stock of a 
species or genus, different from that of the fruit to be grafted 
upon it, can be used rarely with advantage, unless where the 
object of the planter is to restrain and debilitate; and that where 
stocks of the same species with the bud or graft are used it will 
be found advantageous generally to select such as approximate in 
their habits and state of change, or improvement, from cultiva¬ 
tion those of the variety of fruit which they are intended to 
support.”—( Trans. Sort. Soc. of London for 1816.) 
The only situation in which we can believe that the stock of 
another species can be advantageously employed is where the soil 
happens to be unfriendly to the species from which the bud or 
scion is taken. This is justified by om* observing that in a garden 
so low-lying as to be very subject to an overflow of water, the 
