Literary notes about graft (AI summary)
The word graft serves as a multifaceted metaphor in literature, capturing both the literal art of uniting plant parts and the figurative notion of moral or political corruption. In its horticultural sense, graft refers to the deliberate joining of a scion to a compatible stock to produce desired traits—whether it’s the precise cultivation of nut trees [1][2][3] or the creation of novel plant forms through hybridization [4][5]. At the same time, graft evokes images of corruption and unsavory dealings in political and social arenas, as authors use it to denote bribery, backroom arrangements, and the manipulation of power [6][7][8][9]. This dual usage enriches literary expression by intertwining natural processes with human behavior, blurring the line between cultivation and corruption.
- They will take a South Chinese variety and graft it on seedlings that for hundreds of years have been grown in North China.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - After a month of this treatment the graft has taken.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - We have had nice seedling rows, and Dr. Colby sent over a collection of scions, enough to graft each one.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Characters of all kinds are affected by graft hybridisation, in whatever way the grafting may have been effected.
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - In these latter cases we may conclude that a stem had been formed by the union of the bisected buds, that is, by graft-hybridisation.
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - He had all sorts of opportunities for political graft.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - Frauds in elections and graft in official life are yet unheard-of among our Norwegian-American citizens.
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States by George T. Flom - He was an enormously rich man—he had a hand in all the big graft in the neighborhood.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - I thought he probably had some kind of graft with the constabulary.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
