GRAFTING ADVANCE.
(By E. E. Free, Ph. D.) Ono of the oldest arts in the world is that of grafting one plant on to another. Its origin may be even prehistoric'. At the least, it has been known for many centuries, both in the European world and in China. For generations fruit trees have bedn made to bear fruits true to variety, grape vines have been grown in regions unfavorable to them and many other agricultural marvels have been accomplished by plant grafting. Nevertheless, in spite of the familiarity and age of this procedure, it has remained one of the things that botanical science knows little about. Just what happens when a graft “takes” or refuses to “take” is still a good deal of a mystery. Plant surgery is older than human surgery, but much less , Is known about it. , During the last Coin years, however, Professor Lneien Daniel, of the University of Kenneys, in France, has begun to repair tbas lack. Undertaking to perfect hipiiself as a plant surgeon, able to rna*', rpulate the parts of the kiiiir body. Professor Daniel has (ini’- ned by doing things which animal oi-orators cannot accomplish at all. Not c intent with the usual procedure of grafting two plants of the same species together, he has grafted potato plants on tomato plants, cress on cabbages, sunflowers on the roots of artichokes and. a dozen other unexpected combinations. The results are not mere monstrosities, useful only as museum Specimens. On the contrary, .much has already been learned concerning the nature of plant tissues and the things that make plants come true to type or the reverse. The practical technique of making grafts between one plant and another has been approved. Most promising of all, Professor Danin I believes that he will he able by'the use of such grafted vegetables to modify certain vegetable I varieties so that they will be hardier or otherwise more useful. This, it l<rnust be admitted, is still a hope rather' than a fact. Only time will prove wheb'mr the professor is right about these particular practical values. The interest value for botanical theory alicady is evident. The two kinds of plant tissues that are made to grow together are essentially of the same kind. Although varieties of plum tree or of grape vine may differ in the exact kinds of fruit that they bear, they remain, nonetheless. very similar to each other. The living cells of two different varieties of grape vine are presumably much alike and quite able to get along comfortably together in the hybrid plant produced by the graft. It is somewhat otherwise with the grafts accomplished by Professor Daniel. That, indeed, is what gives tins work its unusual interest and snggestiveness. The tomato and potato, for example, are quite dissimilar plants, ft is true that they belong to the same botanical family, that of ;the Solanacea. They are less different from each other than either of them would be from, say, a pine tree. Nevertheless, they arc far less alike than are tlje two varieties of grapes, or the two kinds of plums, or other fruit varieties which agriculturists have been accustomed to join by grafting. Still wider differences exist between some of the other kinds of plants which Professor Daniel has been able to join successfully by his grafts. One. for example, is a variety of sage grafted on to a daisy.
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Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 7
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568GRAFTING ADVANCE. Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 7
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