contend with; tribulation we may have to endure; and

in death we must lie down. But if we are in Christ, we shall be enabled to bear up amidst all which is calculated to agitate and alarm us, and to look beyond death and the grave, to that bright and unfading inheritance, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, as our Mediator and our Advocate, and from whence he shall come and "receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also." Are we destined to endure persecution for righteousness' sake? Are the ridicule, the contempt, and the hatred of thoughtless worldlings to be our portion? Let our souls be animated, and our spirits cheered, by the reflection, that, in all our sorrows, we are sympathized with by our risen Saviour, who "endured the contradiction of sinners against himself," and "by whose stripes we are healed," who will strengthen us for the faithful discharge of duty, and who at length will bestow upon us that "crown of life," which will far more than compensate us for the toils and dangers of our conflict here.

Are we oppressed with the complicated sorrows of life? Still we are forbidden to despond. The Son of Man "had not where to lay his head,”—he was a wanderer and an outcast, he wept, he groaned, he suffered,—and now he reigns in glory. He was like us once, but he has risen; and, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Have those who are dearest to our heart, and loveliest in our eyes, been snatched away from us by death, and must we too encounter the shock of dissolution? Still let us look to him "who died for our offences, and rose again for our justification," and who has said, “Because I live, ye shall live also." And let our faith in him, as "the resurrection and the life," be strengthened, when we remember, that the body in which our Lord appeared on earth, in which he suffered and died, and in which he rose again, was, in every respect, similar to our own. That same body, which was subject to pain and ignominy, and which

was laid in the grave, he has carried with him-now a glorified body-into heaven, and will retain for ever upon his eternal throne. And shall not this body, which we inhabit, be also raised again from the tomb, and, having all its vileness purged away, "be fashioned like unto his glorious body," and be for ever in his presence, and in the enjoyment of " his favour, which is life?"

Trusting to those laws of Nature, which the Almighty has established, the husbandman does not fear to commit the precious seed to the bosom of the earth, well knowing that there it shall lie safe and unharmed by the desolating tempests that sweep above it, till the voice of Spring shall bid it awake, and put forth its dormant energies. And, with yet greater, with perfect confidence, may the Christian resign this frail and perishing body to the darkness and corruption of the tomb, assured that there it shall securely rest from all the strife and turmoil of this evil world, till that morning shall dawn, when the quickening voice of the archangel, and the blast of the trump of God, shall call it forth, renewed and purified from all imperfection, to meet with a risen and reigning Saviour, and with those departed ones, who had "fallen asleep in Jesus," and whom "God will then bring with him."

J. R. D.

THIRTEENTH WEEK-MONDAY.

ENGRAFTING.

I HAVE hitherto taken only incidental notice of the operations of horticulture,—in which term are included all those processes, by which man is enabled to alter, improve, and adapt to his convenience or enjoyment, the various productions of the earth, and yet which do not directly come under the denomination of farm produce. The various details of that interesting subject, as far as

they are connected with the object of this work, will be treated of in the "Summer" volume. But there is one remarkable operation belonging to the department of the gardener, which I shall introduce here, as it affords me an opportunity of explaining a principle dependant on the powers of vegetable life, which, though alluded to, has not yet been under our particular notice,—I mean the operation of engrafting, by means of which the qualities of one species or variety of plants is transferred to another.

If my readers remember what has been said on the nature of the sap,-its circulation, secretion, and aeration, they will be prepared to understand the principle on which the success of engrafting depends. The sap, it will be remembered, which is the food of vegetables, is nearly the same, as to its chemical properties, in most plants; it is collected from the common soil by the roots, and is transmitted by the vital principle, with the aid of capillary attraction, through every part of the plant; in the buds and leaves, it undergoes its first and great change, being there converted into the proper juice, or, in other words, assimilated to the nature, and rendered fit for the development, of the vegetable to which these leaves belong; and, returning from thence, undergoes all the other operations which the conformation and health of the plant requires.

It seems obvious, from this account, that all which is necessary for preserving the vital principle, and developing the peculiar properties of any part of a plant, is, that it should be placed in such circumstances, as that the sap, from a root, may be readily transmitted through it, to a bud or leaf. Now this is precisely what is done in the process of grafting. The engrafter takes a scion or branch, of the tree which he wishes to propagate, and, having cut off the top from the growing stock which he intends to convert, he applies the inner bark of the one to that of the other, and binds them firmly in this situation.

There are various methods of effecting this, which

I shall not attempt to detail; it is enough to know, that if the operation be dexterously performed, and the two trees be of so similar a quality in their cellular texture, as to present no material obstacle to the flowing of the sap, the graft will retain its living principle, the necessary circulation will be completed, the buds of the inserted branch will expand into leaves, and, in virtue of the law already mentioned, these leaves will secrete the proper juice" of the vegetable production to which the scion belongs, and will grow into a tree of the same species and variety, bearing fruit precisely of the same kind as the parent plant from which it was taken.

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There are some niceties in the operation, which are of importance to its success, and the nature of which confirm the view I have now taken. In what is called tongue-grafting, for example, it is desirable that the top of the stock, and the extremity of the graft to be applied to it, should be nearly of equal diameter; and both must be cut off obliquely at corresponding angles. A slip, or angular opening, is made in the centre of the stock downwards, and a similar slip in the graft upwards, into the former of which the thin point of the upper half of the sloping end of the graft is inserted; the barks of stock and graft are made closely to unite, and are tied closely together by means of strands of bass-matting, soaked in water, to exclude the external air; a quantity of clay is then applied over all, which had been worked fine, and mixed with small chopped hay, or horse-droppings, or a composition is applied, of turpentine, bees-wax, and rosin. By these means an intimate union is formed between the graft and the stock, and the flow of the sap, both upward through the cellular texture of the plants, and back again through the inner bark, is facilitated.

Budding, which is also frequently resorted to, is an operation of a similar kind, and depending on a similar principle, the only difference between a bud and a graft being, that the former is a shoot in embryo, the latter a shoot fully developed. This is a summer or autumnal B b

VOL. II.

process, being performed from the beginning of July to the middle of August, when the buds for next year are completely formed in the axilla of the leaf of the pre

sent year.

The chief object of engrafting is to insure fruit, or other productions of some selected variety. This is particularly important in fruit-trees, the varieties of which, raised from the seed, being very numerous, and by far the greater proportion of which producing crabs, or fruit not esteemed for the table. By this ingenious device, the peculiarities of the vegetative process are subjected to the control of man, and made subservient to his comfort; and it is assuredly not too much to say, that these peculiarities were so contrived by the Author of Nature, as to afford, in this respect, a salutary exercise to human ingenuity.

In the Summer volume, I shall have occasion again to advert to this curious and useful operation, in various modes of its application; meanwhile I cannot do any thing more gratifying to myself, and I trust more satisfactory to the reader, than to conclude this sketch with the following interesting and pious observations, suggested by the subject of grafting, which are contained in a late deservedly popular work :—

"It cannot be unworthy of remark, that a phenomenon so striking as that of the mountain ash, bearing, instead of its own little sour and unwholesome berries, large, sweet, and nutritious pears, in consequence of engrafting, has given rise to a scriptural metaphor, most expressive of a like change in our moral nature, one that is as true, in point of fact, as certainly accomplished by appointed means, and as beneficial in its effects, comparing the fruits of the old nature with those of the new. It becomes not immortal beings to admire the one mystery, and to overlook the other. It becomes not me to tell a fellow creature the remarkable art by which his trees may be fruitful, without reminding him that he is himself a tree to be engrafted; and it becomes neither