374 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



ting should be furnislied with a whorl of roots. When these roots 

 grow to ^bout an inch in length, the cutting pots should be raised out 

 of the bottom-heat to stand for a week or ten days before they are potted 

 off singly into small pots. Pots from 2| to 3 inches in diameter are 

 sufficiently large for potting them off. The soil should consist of two- 

 thirds peat and one-third silver-sand in rather a fine condition. When 

 potted, place them near the glass where they can have a brisk temper- 

 ature for a time, till their roots reach the sides of the pots, when they 

 should be gradually hardened off to stand the winter in an intermediate 

 house. Azaleas struck thus from cuttings grow very freely, but many 

 of the choicest varieties never bloom so freely in their early days when 

 grown on their own roots, and often when they attain a considerable 

 size, many of the varieties are very subject to go off limb by limb, and 

 much time and labour is consequently lost, whereas the same sorts 

 grafted on the stocks named bloom more freely and preserve their 

 symmetry and health to a good old age ; consequently we do not 

 advise the propagation of such varieties by the method just described. 

 By the 1st of February, place the young stocks in a night tempera- 

 ture of 60°, keeping them near the glass. Increase the temperature 10° 

 by sun-heat, and dew them over with a fine rose every fine afternoon. 

 They will grow freely under such conditions, and will be 6 to 8 inches 

 high by the 1st of April, which, unless in the case of those intended 

 for standards, is a good height to graft at for general purposes. When 

 two or three varieties are desired on one plant stop them when 6 inches 

 high, and allow them to come away with three or more shoots. It will 

 be a few more weeks before those stopped thus are ready for grafting. 

 When the stocks have attained the desired height, take the grafts from 

 plants that have been in heat sufficiently long to have fresh growing 

 shoots from 1| to 2 inches long. Cut the top off the stock with a 

 sharp thin-bladed knife at a point where it is about the same thickness 

 and consistency in growth as the graft. Cut a " cleft ;" or, in other words, 

 split the top of the stock downwards about half an inch ; round this cleft 

 put loosely for the present a single band of soft matting; then cut the 

 base of the tender graft into a wedge to fit the cleft in the top of the 

 stock ; fit the one nicely into the other, then draw the matting suffi- 

 ciently tight to keep the graft firmly in its place, and the operation is 

 complete. Place the plants at once in a moist warm propagating-pit, 

 or corner of a stove, or any structure where there is a temperature of 

 65", cover them with a propagating- case or common garden hand-light, 

 and, if kept steadily moist at the root and shaded from the sun, in a 

 month the union will be sufficiently complete for the tie to be removed, 

 and the plants exposed by degrees to more light and air. 



As soon as the graft begins to grow freely, it should be stopped, and 



