GRAFTING

In Horticulture, the operation of affixing one portion of a plant to another in such a manner as that a vital union may take place between them. Grafting may be performed both with herbaceous and ligneous plants; but in practice it is chiefly confined to the latter, and more especially to the propagation of esteemed vnrieties of fruit trees. A grafted plant consists of two parts: the stock or stem, which is a rooted plant fixed in the ground; and the scion, sometimes, but erroneously, termed the graft, which is a detached portion of another plant to be affixed to it The operation of grafting can only be performed within certain physiological limits; but what these are science has not yet absolutely determined. In general, all the species of one genus may be grafted on one another reciprocally; but this is not universally the case, because the apple cannot be grafted on the pear, at least not for any useful purpose. In general, it may be presumed that all the species of a natural order, or at least of a tribe, may be grafted on one another; but this does not hold good universally. The reverse of this doctrine, however, viz., that the species belonging to different natural orders cannot be grafted on one another holds almost univer sally true; and therefore a safe practical conclusion is, that in choosing a stock, the nearer in affinity the species to which that stock belongs is to the scion, the more certain will be the succe . Grafting is one of the most important operations in horticulture,as affording the most eligible means of multiplying and perpetuating all our best varieties of fruit-trees, and many kinds of trees and shrubs not so conveniently propagated by other means. Varieties of fruiUA are originally pro 585 [s. 539]