those, many more which you may find in respective authors, and which time and future industry may make no great strangers in England. The inhabitants of nova Hispania, and a great part of America, Mahometans, Indians, Chinese, are eminent promoters of these coronary and specious plants; and the annual tribute of the king of Bisnaguer in India, arising out of odours, and flowers, amounts unto many thousands of crowns. Thus, in brief, of this matter. I am, &c.

OBSERVATIONS ON GRAFTING 1

In the doctrine of all insitions, those are esteemed most successful which are practised under these rules :— That there be some consent or similitude of parts and nature between the plants conjoined.

That insition be made between trees not of very different barks; nor very differing fruits or forms of fructification; nor of widely different ages.

That the scions or buds be taken from the south or east part of the tree.

That a rectitude and due position be observed; not to insert the south part of the scions unto the northern side of the stock, but according to the position of the scions upon his first matrix.

Now, though these rules be considerable in the usual and practised course of insitions, yet were it but reasonable for searching spirits to urge the operations of nature by conjoining plants of very different natures in parts, barks, lateness, and precocities, nor to rest in the experiments of hortensial plants in whom we chiefly

1 Probably addressed to Evelyn.

intend the exaltation or variety of their fruit and flowers, but in all sorts of shrubs and trees applicable unto physic or mechanical uses, whereby we might alter their tempers, moderate or promote their virtues, exchange their softness, hardness, and colour, and so render them considerable beyond their known and trite employments.

To which intent curiosity may take some rule or hint from these or the like following, according to the various ways of propagation :

Colutea upon anagris-arbor judæ upon anagriscassia poetica upon cytisus-cytisus upon periclymenum rectum-woodbine upon jasmine-cystus upon rosemary -rosemary upon ivy-sage or rosemary upon cystus— myrtle upon gall or rhus myrtifolia-whort!e-berry upon gall, heath, or myrtle-coccygeia upon alaternus -mezereon upon an almond-gooseberry and currants upon mezereon, barberry, or blackthorn-barberry upon a currant tree-bramble upon gooseberry or raspberry— yellow rose upon sweetbrier-phyllerea upon broom— broom upon furze-anonis lutea upon furze-holly upon box-bay upon holly-holly upon pyracantha-a fig upon chesnuta fig upon mulberry-peach upon mulberry - mulberry upon buckthorn - walnut upon chesnut-savin upon juniper-vine upon oleaster, rose

mary, ivy-an arbutus upon a fig-a peach upon a fig— white poplar upon black poplar-asp upon white poplar -wych elm upon common elm-hazel upon elm— sycamore upon wych elm-cinnamon rose upon hipberry a whitethorn upon a blackthorn-hipberry upon a sloe, or skeye, or bullace-apricot upon a mulberryarbutus upon a mulberry-cherry upon a peach-oak upon a chesnut-katherine peach upon a quince—a warden upon a quince-a chesnut upon a beech-a beech upon a chesnut-an hornbeam upon a beech— a maple upon an hornbeam—a sycamore upon a maple— a medlar upon a service tree-a sumack upon a quince or medlar-an hawthorn upon a service tree-a quicken tree upon an ash-an ash upon an asp-an oak upon an ilex-a poplar upon an elm-a black cherry tree upon a tilea or lime tree—tilea upon beech-alder upon birch or poplar-a filbert upon an almond- —an almond upon a willow-a nux vesicaria upon an almond or pistachio-a cerasus avium upon a nux vesicaria—a cornelian upon a cherry tree-a cherry tree upon a cornelian-an hazel upon a willow or sallow-a lilac upon a sage tree—a syringa upon lilac or tree-mallowa rose elder upon syringa―a water elder upon rose elder-buckthorn upon elder-frangula upon buckthorn -hirga sanguinea upon privet-phyllerea upon vitex

vitex upon euonymus-euonymus upon viburnum— ruscus upon pyracantha — paleurus upon hawthorn tamarisk upon birch-erica upon tamarisk-polemonium upon genista hispanica-genista hispanica upon colutea. Nor are we to rest in the frustrated success of some single experiments, but to proceed in attempts in the most unlikely unto iterated and certain conclusions, and to pursue the way of ablactation or inarching. Whereby we might determine whether, according to the ancients, no fir, pine, or picea, would admit of any incision upon them; whether yew will hold society with none; whether walnut, mulberry, and cornel cannot be propagated by insition, or the fig and quince admit almost of any, with many others of doubtful truths in the propagations.

And while we seek for varieties in stocks and scions, we are not to admit the ready practice of the scion upon its own tree. Whereby, having a sufficient number of good plants, we may improve their fruits without translative conjunction, that is, by insition of the scion upon his own mother, whereby an handsome variety or melioration seldom faileth-we might be still advanced by iterated insitions in proper boughs and positions. Insition is also made not only with scions and buds, but seeds, by inserting them in cabbage

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