Grafting

Grafting, or "Working," as gardeners sometimes term it, consists in the transfer of a branch, known as the graft or scion, from one plant to another, which latter is called the stock. It is essential that the cambium-layers or growing tissue of the two should be brought into close contact. The usual object of the process is to bring about earlier or more abundant flowering or fruiting, so that many stocks, from their effect on the scion, are what are termed dwarfing-stocks. The chief modifications of the process are (1) whip-grofting or tongue-grafting, in which the stock is cut back obliquely, a slice pared off one side and a notch made on the sliced surface, whilst the scion is cut obliquely and then a whip or tongue cut on its oblique surface to fit the notch, the whole being bound round with wet bast and clay; (2) side grafting, which differs in no notch and tongue being made and the stock being often not headed back, the most frequent object of this process being simply to add a side branch to improve the form of a trained tree; (3) cleft-grafting, in which the stock is headed off horizontally and then cleft down the middle, the scion being cut into a thin wedge and inserted in the cleft; (4) crown or rind-grafting, in which a slit is cut in the bark and the scion inserted between it and the sap-wood; and (5) root-grafting, practised commonly in the case of dahlias and peonies, in which young shoots are inserted into a fleshy root, the junction being then covered with the soil. Inarching only differs from side-grafting in that the scion is not severed from its parent tree until its union with the stock is complete. As a rule, stock and scion, though united, retain their several characters; but undoubted cases of grafthybrids occur, of which the most remarkable is Cgtisus Adami, a tree bearing some branches, leaves and flowers intermediate in character between those of the common laburnum ( C. Laburnum), its stock, and C. purpureus, its scion. [Bud.]