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ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

whole of the sap into the scion. A good workman, it is said, will graft 200 or250 subjects a day, provided he have an assistant to cut the side shoots fromthe stock, and prepare the scion; leaving him nothing to do but to break offthe leading shoot of the stock, make the slit in it, insert the scion, tie theligature round it, and fix on the paper envelope. The shoot made by thescion is little or nothing for the first year; but the second year it is conside-rable, and the third a foot or more, and most frequently from 2 ft. to 3 ft.in length. The future shoots, says Delamarre, are truly admirable fortheir length, their thickness, and their great vigour. The most suitablestocks are plants sown where they are finally to stand; and of 4, 5, or 6years’ growth, the object being to make the graft 3 ft. or 4 ft. from the ground,to avoid the necessity of stooping on the part of the operator. Grafting inthis manner has been carried to a great extent by M. De Larminat, in theForest of Fontainebleau. In the Bon Jardinier for 1826, it is stated that about10,000 scions of P. Larfcio had been at that time grafted on P. sylvestris in thatforest; and M. Delamarre informs us, in 1830, that the process had beencontinued up to that time, at the rate of several thousand trees every year.

The mode of grafting practised by M. De Larminat is described by M.Poiteau in the volume of the Bon Jardinier above referred to; and we giveit here, because it differs, though in a very slight degree, from that just described.The proper time for grafting pines is when the young shoots have made aboutthree quarters of their length, and are still so herbaceous as to break like ashoot of asparagus. The shoot of the stock is then broken off about 2 in.

under its terminating bud; the leaves arestripped off from 20 to 24 lines downfrom the extremity; leaving, however,

2009

|. two pairs of leaves opposite and closeWl to the section of fracture, which leavesm are of great importance. The shoot is* then split with a very thin knife, between

j | the two pairs of leaves (fig. 2009 a), and

Iji to the depth of 2 in.; the scion is then

w prepared ( b ) ; the lower part, being" stripped of its leaves to the length of2 in., is cut, and inserted in the usual

manner of cleft-grafting. They may be grafted, also,in the lateral manner (c). The graft is tied witha slip of woollen; and a cap of paper (fig. 2010.) isput over the whole, to protect it from the sun andrain. At the end of 15 days, this cap is removed,and the ligature at the end of a month; at thattime, also, the two pairs of leaves (a), which haveserved as nurses, are removed. The scions of those

sorts of pines which make two growths in a season, or, as the technicalphrase is, have a second sap, produce a shoot of 5 in. or 6 in. the first year;but those of only one sap, as the Corsican pine, Weymouth pine, &c., merelyripen the wood grown before grafting, and form a strong terminating bud,which in the following year produces a shoot of 15 in. or 2 ft. in length.(Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 200.) This mode of grafting was practised by theBaron Tschoudy, who gave it the name of herbaceous grafting, not onlywith the pine and fir tribe, but with every other class of ligneous plants,and also with herbaceous vegetables. It is very generally practised by theParis nurserymen, and especially by M. Soulange-Bodin, though it is, as yet,but little known in British gardens. One of the first trees, that we are awareof, that was grafted in this way in Britain, was an d'bies Smithiaraa, atHopetoun House, which was grafted on a common spruce in 1826, the sameyear in which the above account appeared in the Gardener's Magazine.This tree is now (1837) 10 ft. high.

By Seed. The number of seeds in a cone varies according to the