Previously Unpublished Works of Roger Bacon, Fascicle 11: Questions on Aristotle's Metaphysics and On Plants

that testifies to a vigorous horticultural movement in the thirteenth century. However incredible it seems, this kind of grafting The process of joining a shoot or bud from one plant onto the stem or root of another so that they grow together. seems to have been fairly common. In the Twenty-Three Manners of the Peasant original: "des XXIII Manieres de Vilain" (Paris, 1833, ed. F. Michel, and Romania, 1922, p. 256, ed. E. Faral) a lady of birth married to a peasant original: "villein," a feudal tenant who was legally tied to a lord's land but was not a slave. is compared to such a graft. "The peasant graft is he who takes a noblewoman just as one grafts a 'Saint' pear onto a cabbage, or onto a wild pear tree, or onto a turnip." original: "Li vilains Entes si est cius ki prent gentil feme tout ausi com on ente une poire de saint en .j. chol, u en .j. perier sauvage, u en .j. naviel." The practice existed till the seventeenth century in France: in the Theater of Agriculture and Management of the Fields original: "Theatre d’Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs" of Olivier de Serres (Paris, 1600) it is twice referred to and condemned as useless.

"By this it is apparent how much they are mistaken who, not satisfied with the generosity of Nature, graft apple, pear, and plum trees onto cabbage stalks, or onto small oaks, elms, willow branches, and similar materials original: "drogueries," here meaning unsuitable or mismatched botanical stocks. that are entirely discordant with fruit trees; from which, no matter what one does, no satisfaction can be obtained, and both effort and hope are lost. And even if fruits were to result, due to the inadequacy of such subjects—since no nourishment other than what is unnatural could be given to them—they would be found to have a flat and disagreeable flavor, or possibly one that is harmful and dangerous. Any benefit that might be derived from such mixtures is limited to the pleasure of the eye admiring the oddity of seeing monstrous and unusual fruits." (book vi. chapter 21, p. 657.)

"I shall make no mention of grafts on cabbage stalks, on elms, oaks, ashes, wayfaring trees original: "obiers," likely referring to the guelder-rose or wayfaring tree. and the like, as they are of no value, owing both to the difficulty of their taking root and their short life, as well as the little pleasure one might derive from the flavor of the fruits resulting from such monstrous marriages; for which reason, being rightly condemned, one should not dally with such vanities." (book vi. chapter 24, p. 672.)

Today all memory of the practice has so far died out that our schools are ignorant that it ever existed, and it was only after long inquiries that I was directed to the passages of Serres by the kindness of M. de Vilmorin of Paris. A method, still in use, of preserving grafts by temporarily inserting them into succulent plants etc., derived from much