464 pliny's nattjeal histoey. [Book XVII. 



change of scene, or that, on leaving the spots of their original 

 growth, or to which they have been transplanted, they lay 

 aside their bad qualities and become tame, like the wild ani- 

 mals, the moment they are separated from the parent stock. 



CHAP. 13. PROPAGATION BY SLIPS AND CUTTINGS. 



Nature has also discovered another method, which is very 

 similar to the last— for slips torn away from the tree will live. 

 In adopting this plan, care should be taken to pull out the 

 haunch 37 of the slip where it adheres to the stock, and so re- 

 move with it a portion of the fibrous body of the parent tree. 

 It is in this way that the pomegranate, the hazel, the apple, 

 the sorb, the medlar, the ash, the fig, and more particularly 

 the vine, are propagated. The quince, however, if planted in 

 this way will degenerate, 38 and it has been consequently found 

 a better plan to cut slips and plant them : a method which 

 was at first adopted for making hedges, with the elder, the 

 quince, and the bramble, but came afterwards to be applied to 

 cultivated trees, such as the poplar, the alder, and the willow, 

 which last will grow if even the slip is planted upside down. 39 

 In the case of cuttings, they are planted at once in the spot 

 which it is intended they should occupy.: but before we pass 

 on to the other methods of propagation, it seems as well to 

 mention the care that should be expended upon making seed- 

 plots. 40 



CHAP. 14. SEED-PLOTS. 



In laying out a seed-plot it is necessary that a soil of the 

 very highest quality should be selected ; for it is very often 

 requisite that a nurse should be provided for the young plants, 

 who is more ready to humour them than their parent soil. The 

 ground should therefore be both dry and nutritious, well 



37 " Perna." This method of reproduction is still adopted, but it is not 

 to be recommended, as the young tree, before it throws out a root, is liable 

 to be overthrown by high winds. Virgil mentions it, Georg. h. 23. 



38 Palladi-us only says that the growth of the quince in such case is very 



39 This experiment has been tried for curiosity's sake, and has succeeded ; 

 the roots become dry, lose their fibres, and then develop buds, from which 

 branches issue ; while the buds of the summit become changed into roots. 



*o " Seminarii :" " nurseries," as they are more commonly called. 



