Many readers of the Horticulturist will be very thankful to Mr. Charles More for having called their attention to a mode of grafting so easy to perform, and so certain of success. Having had an opportunity of trying it, I hope to be pardoned for introducing the same subject again.

Two years ago, in the month of June, I saw a friend of mine cutting down a grape vine an inch and a half thick, in order to graft it. I expressed my fear of the probable loss of so strong and beautiful a plant, recommending at the same time the grafting of one of its green shoots, the possibility of which my friend seemed to doubt. Although I had had no experience in herbaceous grafting, yet, more bold than considerate, I promised to show him that it could be done. What I knew of it was hardly more than I had picked up accidentally from hearsay. Still I undertook, immediately on my return home, to graft a scion of a tomato on a shoot of a potato vine growing in my garden. I cut about one third of the potato shoot off, just above a leaf, taking care not to injure the bud at its base. The tomato scion had two buds. The potato shoot was split about an inch long, the lower end of the scion cut in the form of a wedge, inserted, and tied with a piece of matting without the application of any wax. The scion, being shielded from the sun, was every day sprinkled with a little water, and took readily. In the fall the tomato was loaded with ripe and unripe fruit; it had grown to an enormous size.

Not having removed any of the shoots of the potato vine, it yielded as many tubers as a vigorous potato plant will generally produce. The experiment excited more admiration than it deserved, from the fact that herbaceous grafting was unknown here. My friend was convinced, but failed in every attempt at grafting a green shoot of a grape vine into a green shoot of another, though undertaken in a vinery.

Last spring I took home with me a lateral of the Golden Hamburgh grape, which had just been broken off. This was in the middle of June. I cut it into two scions of one eye each, and inserted them into the young shoots of Isabellas which had sprung up, the main stems having been winter killed, precisely in the same way pursued in grafting the tomato on the potato; that is, I cut off the shoot of the Isabella one third of its length from the top, etc. Still being very anxious to accomplish my object, I covered the plant thus grafted with a large bell-glass, shading it carefully till the incipient growth of the scion indicated that the union had taken place. The fifth day after the operation I removed the eye at the base of the first (top) leaf. Five days later I cut the discs of every leaf of the stock, so that nothing but the middle rib remained, removing at the same time their eyes also. Ten days after I repeated this latter operation, at which time I cut the leaf of the scion in the same manner in which I had cut the leaves of the stock ten days previous. A perfect union was effected in less than a month. It may be important to state here, that I left as long a piece of the shoot of the scion above its only bud as was possible.

This piece was about an inch long; the cut for the wedge commenced about a quarter of an inch below the eye. To be accurate in every particular, I must also mention that I used instead of matting elastic woollen yarn, not too much twisted, for tying.

The laterals of the grafts were stopped at one leaf each time, as usual, to obtain a single strong shoot. One of them had attained the height of four feet towards the close of August, when it was stopped to ripen its wood. The other, growing in a shady place, did not ripen much of its wood, so that I shall lose it during the winter, while I am confident that the first one will survive it, notwithstanding the impossibility of potting it, as intended, for reasons too irrelevant to be explained here.

Noisette, in his justly celebrated book on gardening, describes two modes of performing herbaceous grafting, the one for woody plants and trees, the other for herbaceous plants, such as the cucumber and the like. The latter is exactly identical with the method I pursued in grafting the tomato on the potato; the former prescribes the gradual removing of the eyes and the discs of the leaves, as practiced by me in grafting the grape vine; for I proceeded as he advises it. He cuts also the scion as I did, but his way of splitting the stock is entirely different. His way is the following: Towards the end of May the stock is cut below the third, fourth, or fifth leaf, counting them from the top downwards, so that a little stump is left (an inch or so long) above the next leaf and eye. By the eye is meant that one which is prominent; actually there are three of them, two hardly visible without a magnifier. The cut or split of the stock ought to be slanting, commencing about a quarter of an inch above the petiole of the leaf, and descending between the prominent and either of the two small eyes into the middle of the stock a little more than a quarter of an inch below. Consequently the whole length of the cut or split will be not quite three quarters of an inch long.

Of course this depends wholly on circumstances.

That it is not necessary to be so particular in regard to this point, the success of my way of proceeding shows clearly. The stump above the only eye of the scion should be of the same length as that of the stock; and, if practicable, the plant should be covered with a bell-glass till it begins to grow.

In grafting evergreens, some care is required in the removing of the leaves. This article, however, is already so long, that it would be injudicious to make the slightest addition. In conclusion, I may perhaps be permitted to say, that Azaleas can also be easily grafted in the fork of two small diverging twigs, even if the scion should not be thicker than a knitting needle. This, I know very well, is not new, but it is eminently practical.

[We are under deep obligations to Horticola for having broken his long silence, and treating us to a subject so interesting to our readers. We will say here, that Horticola is not only a distinguished scholar, but a devoted and enthusiastic amateur and experimenter; our readers may expect to hear from him often. The present article will commend itself to our readers generally; we can imagine with what avidity it will be read by our friend El Medico. We have more in store for him, and others as devoted as he is. In making the slit in herbaceous graft- ing, the reader must understand that the eye in connection with it on the stock must not be destroyed; this is of importance, especially in the grape vine. On this point Horticola has anticipated one of our Grape articles. The Grape vine may and should be grafted in this way earlier than mentioned by Horticola, and the ripening of the wood thereby insured. The reader will observe that Horticola performed the operation in June simply because he at that time came into possession of a valuable scion; he does not recommend grafting so late, though his case shows that it can be done thus late, and ripe wood secured. When a bell glass is not at hand, a good substitute may be made of oiled paper.

Probably a good many of our readers will amuse themselves next summer by taking a crop of Potatoes and Tomatoes from one and the same plant: we can promise them that they will find the experiment a very interesting one. - Ed].