As the capacity of
one plant to be grafted or budded on another is unimportant for their
welfare in a state of nature, I presume that no one will suppose that this
capacity is a SPECIALLY endowed quality, but will admit that it is
incidental on differences in the laws of growth of the two plants. We can
sometimes see the reason why one tree will not take on another from
differences in their rate of growth, in the hardness of their wood, in the
period of the flow or nature of their sap, etc.; but in a multitude of
cases we can assign no reason whatever. Great diversity in the size of two
plants, one being woody and the other herbaceous, one being evergreen and
the other deciduous, and adaptation to widely different climates, does not
always prevent the two grafting together. As in hybridisation, so with
grafting, the capacity is limited by systematic affinity, for no one has
been able to graft together trees belonging to quite distinct families;
and, on the other hand, closely allied species and varieties of the same
species, can usually, but not invariably, be grafted with ease. But this
capacity, as in hybridisation, is by no means absolutely governed by
systematic affinity. Although many distinct genera within the same family
have been grafted together, in other cases species of the same genus will
not take on each other. The pear can be grafted far more readily on the
quince, which is ranked as a distinct genus, than on the apple, which is a
member of the same genus.
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