a better knowledge of the best system is important to them, how much more will our own cultivators be benefited by such a thorough acquaintance with its theory and practice, as will enable them to carry on its operations successfully?

With a view to afford this information to the English gardener, a translation of D'Albret's work on grafting has been commenced in the Gardener's Chronicle, to be accompanied with wood cuts, illustrating all his descriptions, in such a manner as to render the process as familiar as possible.

"The French," says the Editor, "have long been famous for the variety, singularity and ingenuity of their modes of budding and grafting. In Thouin's 'Monograph of Grafts,' all that was known to that great gardener was carefully represented and described. But to his pupil, D'Albret, belongs the honor of separating the essential and nonessential, and of reducing his master's long practice to greater method and precision. It is D'Albret, whom we are about to produce in an English dress, and we feel confident that our readers, of every class, will agree with us in thinking that by the publication of his views, a real service will be rendered to practical horticulture. It will then be seen that our cleft grafting, whip grafting, saddle grafting, inarching, crown grafting, and budding, form but a small part of the methods which the great continental gardeners find it useful to employ, one for one purpose, one for another."

With these prefatory remarks by Dr. Lindley, we introduce the commencement of the series of articles, which will be continued in our future numbers, and we may apply the same observations to our own countrymen, in regard to their importance, which Dr. Lindley applies to his, viz., “that it cannot be denied, that superior as English gardening is in some respects, it is very far behind that of France, in all that relates to the management of fruit trees. Of course, we say this in a general sense only; for we are bound to admit that in some cases the English gardener is not behind his continental friend. These cases are, however, the exception, not the rule; but we believe it is only necessary to

teach the gardeners of this country something more than the meagre routine which they learn while young, in order to place them at once on a level with their friends across the channel."-ED.

A WORD ON THE HISTORY OF GRAFTING.-Many authors have written on grafting, and some of them have treated the subject with great clearness. Much has been contributed to it by the celebrated A. Thouin, who published in 1821 an excellent monograph, in which we find the best documents on its history; after his death, that work was incorporated with his "Cours de Culture," published in 1827 by his estimable nephew, Oscar Leclerc Thouin. The author of this monograph states, that the discovery of the art of grafting is of the highest antiquity, but its inventor is not known. The Phoenicians transmitted it to the Carthagenians and Greeks; the Romans received it from the latter, and spread the knowledge of it in Europe, where it has become such as we find it at the present day. He adds, that the authors who have treated of the art in some detail are Theophrastus, Aristotle, and Xenophon, among the Greeks; Mago among the Carthagenians; Varro, Pliny the naturalist, Virgil, Agricola, in Italy, and Sickler, in Germany; Bradley, Miller, and Forsyth, in England; Olivier de Serres, La Quintinie, Duhamel, Rosièr, Cabanis, and the Baron Tschûdy among the French; and to these we now add, with veneration, the name of the late André Thouin, whose remarkable monograph contains all the principles and details essential for the guidance of writers and practical men with reference to the art of grafting; for my part I could wish for no other. During the last 13 years of his long and honorable career, he entrusted me with the execution of all the models of grafts which he had collected, to the number of 119,* in his "School of Practical Agriculture," founded in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris in 1797. This fine and judiciously formed

* In a compilation published in 1825, we find a more extensive nomenclature, in consequence of the application of the same operations to different plants. This multiplicity of names seems to have been badly received by the public, the work being still in its first edition.

collection is altogether admirable; but I shall here demonstrate only such portions of it as I consider most essential to amateurs and to practical men, who daily experience the necessity of propagating plants, either for the agreeableness of their flowers or for the quality of their fruits, produced by species or varieties which frequently cannot be propagated except by grafting them on wild stocks, or on such as are, in other respects, of little value or interest; but they must naturally belong to the same family, as we shall subsequently explain.

OF THE UTILITY of Grafting.-Gardeners and connoisseurs in horticulture are aware that by grafting, many trees can be made to assume very picturesque forms; and it is the means of propagating numbers of woody, resinous, soft, or herbaceous plants, for use or ornament, of which very many give few or no seeds, and are difficult to strike from cuttings or layers; by grafting we make sure of preserving the originals, whether valued for the quality of their fruits, the structure and form of their flowers, their colors, the perfumes which they exhale, or as regards the nature of their wood, the aspect of the trees, the shades and variation of their foliage, &c. &c. Productions obtained by chance, or by fertilization, either natural or artificial, or in consequence of accidental disease, and many other sports of nature, which would otherwise be lost, or could be but rarely, and after long delay obtained from seed-are readily perpetuated by the art of grafting. It may therefore be viewed as a celestial boon for increasing the amount of our enjoyment. By this mode of propagation we can accelerate the fructification of species or varieties of fruits which are annually obtained from seeds, without however increasing their size, as some have asserted, but falsely, as will be demonstrated by the following experiments. I budded annually, for 15 years, a St. Germain pear-tree trained as a pyramid. It received the first operation in August, a bud being taken from one of the lateral branches produced by the original, which had then been two years grafted. This bud was inserted about 10 inches from the base of the central shoot. Every year, at the same pe

riod, a similar operation was performed; and when the tree had received the fifteenth, it was about 19 feet high. At the age of 18 or 20 years, all the lateral branches from the respective buddings produced an abundance of fruits, which differed nothing from each other, and their flavor was the same as that of the original sort. A similar experiment was also made at the same time on the Reinette Franche, with corresponding results.

I cannot therefore say that grafting increases the size of fruits. Their increase of size is always limited by nature, as are likewise all the variations which they sometimes take in form. Their fertility, the greater or less perfume and succulent quality of their flesh, are generally caused by the influence of the stocks which nourish them; nevertheless the situation in which these are placed, the quality of the soil from which they draw their nourishment, &c., frequently modify the assertion I have just made, inasmuch as a sort grafted on a stock originally disposed to give large fruit of indifferent quality, and forced to live in a bad locality, cannot possibly give the result we might reasonably expect, were it placed in a more favorable position.

ON THE AFFINITY OF GRAFTS AND STOCKS.-I shall only say a few words on the affinity of grafts with the stocks on which they should be worked, in order to assist in destroying the errors of some ancient authors, and which are still credited by some persons, who are led away with the false idea that they may successfully graft trees or other plants on each other, although these should have no family relationship. In consequence of this ignorance, it has been said, that in order to obtain black roses, you must graft on the black currant, and to have green, on the box. They would also wish to persuade us that all trees will take on the olive, and this on the fig; the vine on the walnut and cherry; the peach on the willow, and the apple on the great cow-cabbage, &c. &c. Happily, our modern authors, and the enlightened men of our age, have entirely rejected these false assertions. It is now well known that, in order to graft with success any woody or herbaceous plant, it is necessary that the plant fur

nishing the grafts be of the same family as the stock; or, frequently, that both should belong to the same genus, or to varieties of the same species. There should also be some analogy between the saps of the two individuals, not only on account of their affinities, but also with reference to their proper juices. Thus we may graft, with success, the plum on the cherry, and vice versa, the apple takes on the pear, and vice versa; but although these genera are of the same family, nearly related, confounded, or united by some learned botanists, yet they rarely exist united two or three years. With regard to the vigor of the stocks, we prefer those that are strong and hardy for large trees, and the weaker for those of smaller dimensions. As to the persistence of the leaves, and the movement of the sap in the subjects to be united by grafting, it is in general necessary that they should nearly correspond. We have, however, some examples to the contrary. The Prunus Laurocerasus and P. lusitanica, both evergreens, live for some time grafted on the bird cherry, prunus padus, and are less sensible to the cold than those growing on their own roots. The Eriobotrya japonica and E. glabra, also evergreens, live a very long time grafted on the Mespilus oxyacantha. The cedar of Lebanon, Larix cedrus, grafted on the common larch, Larix europæ, lives upwards of ten years, but it remains stunted and dwarf. There are other well known facts of this kind, which I need not mention here, as they only prove exceptions to the general rule.

OF THE QUALITIES which branches and shoots ought to possess when cut from the trees, and the means to be adopted for preserving their vitality.-Many authors recommend taking the shoots produced at the extremities of healthy vigorous trees. The theory which they develope scems to be conclusive. It must, however, give way to the subjoined observations. Some years before the first transfer of the Ecole des Arbres Fruitiers du Jardin des Plantes, effected in 1824, I was obliged to take grafts from more than 400 of these trees, of the different sorts, which were found to be in a state of complete decrepitude, often covered with canker,