226 
THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 
PROPAGATION: Any method by which plants 
can be increased in quantity, however slow the process 
may be, is rightly referred to as being applicable for 
the purpose of Propagation. Plants are propagated in 
various ways: some which increase at a most rapid rate 
by one method cannot be similarly raised by another; 
occasionally, they cannot be raised at all. The principal 
modes are those of seeds, cuttings, layers, offsets, bulbs, 
tubers, suckers, runners, and division of the plant or 
rootstock. Budding and grafting afford facilities for the 
rapid Propagation of such plants as under certain con- 
ditions may be successfully dealt with; and sometimes 
leaves are inserted, with the result that new plants 
or bulbs will eventually form on the firm parts of 
the main midribs where incisions have been made. Under 
- Budding, Cuttings, Grafting, Layering, and Leaf 
* Propagation, details may be found of the ways in which 
-~ these several systems of Propagation are adopted in 
practice, which it is unnecessary to repeat under this 
heading. 
Propagation by seeds is the most natural mode, and is, 
consequently, the one by which the vast majority of 
plants naturally spread and reproduce their species more 
or less true, according as the flowers are subjected or 
disposed to become influenced by foreign pollen affecting 
their fertilisation. If all plants were naturally to repro- 
duce themselves true from seeds, the endless variety re- 
presented, for instance, in florists’ flowers, could not 
possibly have been obtained by artificial fertilising and 
eross-breeding, neither could further improvements be so 
rapidly made. Where exact counterparts of plants cannot 
be insured by seed-saving, there is generally some one or 
more of the other methods of Propagation which can be 
successfully applied, as the insertion of cuttings, buds, or 
grafts, which generally retain their distinctive characters, 
althongh often—as in budding and grafting—supported 
by sap which is not that of a plant or tree of the same 
species, nor, maybe, even of the same genus. The great 
number of annuals in cultivation must of necessity be pro- 
pagated from seeds, as their roots do not live long after 
the seed comes to maturity. The conditions requisite for 
successful Propagation by seeds, are the proper ripening 
beforehand of the latter, their right preservation during 
the interval between collecting and sowing, so as to in- 
sure the retention of all germinative properties, and their 
insertion in soil at the proper time, under conditions 
favourable to rapid or slow development into plants, as 
individual sorts may be naturally disposed. Some seeds, 
even when perfectly matured, retain their germinative 
properties but a comparatively short time; while others, 
kept under favourable conditions, are just as good at 
the end of four, or frequently more, years, as in the first 
after being gathered. When old seeds of flower or 
kitchen garden crops are intended for sowing, a few of 
each should be tested beforehand, in order to ascertain 
the proportion of good ones in a given quantity. This 
may easily be done, by sowing a potful, and placing them 
in a little heat. A seed-room kept at about 45deg., 
and not much affected by outside fluctuations of tem- 
perature, is best suited for the general preservation 
_ of seeds, from the time of collecting them until the 
period for sowing; it should have a boarded floor, and 
be kept quite dry. There are, however, many seeds, 
especially those of trees, which lose their vitality if 
ept dry; these should be placed in sand, soil, damp 
_ moss, or some other substance suitable for preserving 
_ them, until the proper time for sowing arrives. This 
varies considerably with different plants, and as those 
_ ground at a season suit 
raised from seed are extremely numerous, it is impos- _ 
Propagation—continued. 
must be sown in spring; hardy ones sometimes succeed 
and flower all the better if they are established by that 
season. Seeds of plants that are biennial—that is, do 
not flower until the second year—require sowing before, 
or soon after, midsummer, a season favourable to 
germination, and one which allows the plants, when ob- 
tained, to become established before the winter. There 
are numerous plants grown from seed for indoor decora- 
tion, the season for sowing which depends very much on 
the time when the product is required. Gardening sup- 
plies are in constant demand, and sowing for succession 
is one of the gardener’s chief considerations, as it affects 
so seriously his system adopted for providing what is 
requisite at the proper time. There are various methods 
of seed-sowing, but in the open ground they may practi- 
cally be reduced to two, namely, scattering indiscrimi- 
nately or broadcast, and sowing in drills. The last-named 
is the one now most generally practised, as it affords 
more convenient opportunities for cleaning and thinning 
the crops or seedlings, as the case may be, than the 
broadcast system does. Under glass, shallow pans are 
perhaps most suitable; they afford a larger top surface 
than pots, and this is often desirable for enabling 
one to sow thinly. Whether pans or pots are used, they 
should always be thoroughly clean and dry, and be well 
drained. Seeds of any description may be said to re- 
quire a lighter soil wherein to germinate than that in 
which the plants will grow when established. Even 
those of forest-trees, which fall and root themselves into 
the earth, are naturally provided with a covering of 
leaf-soil formed by the decay of the leaves which the 
trees themselves shed. Encouragement to free root 
action is first essential, and this is usually best given 
by the use of a light compost, into which the roots can 
readily enter; any special requirements can be provided 
when they are stronger, and when nutriment is neces- 
plants which bear them, but more generally about their 
roots. ere they are produced, ati easy mode of Propa- 
gation is effected by separating or lifting them when 
the old plants ripen and their tops decay. Tubers admit 
lanted ; the Potato is a well-known 
