BUDDING, in gardening, the art of multi plying plants by causing the leaf-bud of one species (or, more commonly, variety) to grow upon the branch of another. The operation consists in shaving off a leaf-bud, with a por tion of the wood beneath it, which portion is afterward removed by a sudden jerk of the operator's finger and thumb, aided by the budding-knife. An incision in the bark of the stock is then made in the form of a T ; the two side lips are pushed aside, the bud is thrust between the bark and, the wood, the upper end of its bark is cut to a level with the cross arm of the T, and the whole is bound up with netting or worsted, the point of the bud alone being left exposed. In per forming the operation, a knife with a thin flat handle and a blade with a peculiar edge is reguired. The following conditions are essential to the success of the operation: First, the bud must be that is, fully formed— which is known by its plumpness and hardness. If too young, it will not succeed, because it has not acquired vitality enough to depend upon its own resources, until that new growth has taken place which attaches it to the stock. If too old, *sprung,* or beginning to grow, it is also unfit for use, because the new organs belonging to the young growth need an instant and uninter rupted supply of food, which in the beginning the bud cannot obtain from the branch. Sec ondly, the bark of the stock must *run freely,* that is, must separate readily from the wood below it. This separation is necessary in order that the bud may be inserted beneath the bark; and is always attended by the presence of a large quantity of the viscid matter called cam bium, which is in fact a mixture of young tissue in the act of organizing and of organizable matter. The bud coming in contact with this substance, young and full of vitality, readily forms an adhesion with it, and thus the opera tion is complete. On this account young
branches should always be chosen, since the bark never runs so freely, that is, there is never so great a collection of cambium under it in old branches. Those of the year in which the operation is performed are the best, pro vided they are advanced toward maturity. Shoots far advanced in a second year's growth are however, often used, and with success. With regard to the time of perform ing the operation, autumn is preferred in this country, but it may be practised also in spring. Buds take better in autumn, because the stock has at that period ceased growing, and is chiefly occupied in storing up the organizable material required for the nutrition of the young organs, of which the bud, by the act of insertion, has become one. It ought to be borne in mind that the nearer the constitution of the stock approaches that of the bud, the greater is the success that attends this operation. If they are in any considerable degree dissimilar, the oper ation becomes precarious; if very different, it is impracticable.
In animals, a form of reproduction, as of hydra, the sea-anemones, the coral polyps, ascidians, etc. The nature of the process due to rapid cell-division developed locally is best seen in the hydra (q.v.), where young hydras arise from protrusions, well called. *buds,* from the side of the parent stock, and later are con stricted off and become free individuals. In the corals, as a result of throwing out lateral buds from the base, arises a colony, or com pound coral like most of the reef-building forms, such as the brain-coral (Meandrina). In the hydra and other animals the new indi vidual arising by budding becomes free from the parent.