But every flower must be nipped off carefully.
Support the stem with a stick to make it grow straight. Even when it has
attained its proper height of two feet again cut off the bloom for a few
days.
It is said that Miss Mitford, the admired authoress, was the first to
discover that the common mignonette could be induced to adopt tree-like
habits. The experiment has been tried in India, but it has sometimes
failed from its being made at the wrong season. The seed should be sown
at the end of the rains.
GRAFTING.--Take care to unite exactly the inner bark of the scion with
the inner bark of the stock in order to facilitate the free course of
the sap. Almost any scion will take to almost any sort of tree or plant
provided there be a resemblance in their barks. The Chinese are fond of
making fantastic experiments in grafting and sometimes succeed in the
most heterogeneous combinations, such as grafting flowers upon fruit
trees. Plants growing near each other can sometimes be grafted by the
roots, or on the living root of a tree cut down another tree can be
grafted. The scions are those shoots which united with the stock form
the graft. It is desirable that the sap of the stock should be in brisk
and healthy motion at the time of grafting. The graft should be
surrounded with good stiff clay with a little horse or cow manure in it
and a portion of cut hay.
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