Graft
Graft
(ἐγκεντρίζω, to prick in or spur on, Wisd. 16:11; hence to insert by an incision, Ro 11:23, A.V. "graff in"), the process of inoculating fruit-trees, often resorted to in order to preserve the quality of the fruit; bytaking shoots or buds from approved trees and inserting.them on others, where; with proper precautions, they continue to grow (Ro 11:17-24). By this process particular sorts of fruit may be kept from degenerating, which they are very apt to do when raised from the seed; for the grafts, though they receive their nourishment from the stocks, always produce fruit of the same sort as the tree from which they were taken. This process is peculiarly appropriate to the olive-tree (Stuart, Comment. ad loc.). An insect of the gnat species is said to breed in the male fig-tree, and, being covered with the pollen of the male flowers, impregnates with it the stigma of the female tree. The flowers of the palm-tree yield fruit only on the female tree, when its stigmata have been fecundated by pollen from the male; and as it is precarious to leave this process to be effected by insects or the wind, it is commonly done by manual labor. See FIG. The Hebrews appear to have pinched off the blossoms of the fruit-trees during the three first years of their growth, in order to improve their fruitfulness (Nu 18:12-13). SEE TREE.
