DWABF AND 8L0W-GB0WING CONIFEES 13 



adopt, but I strike my cuttings in sharp sand, both in 

 autumn and spring, using either a single shoot of current 

 year's growth with a " heel," or else a small branch with its 

 accompanying branchlets, and a good percentage of both 

 strike. In autumn such cuttings are put in a cool green- 

 house or under square hand-lights. In spring they are 

 placed under cloches in full sun and never allowed to dry, 

 and they root fairly quickly. 



Layers. — When cuttings are hard to get or not likely to 

 strike readily, layering may be adopted. The majority 

 of the plants being extremely low-growing, this is not a 

 difficult matter; branches slightly snicked with a knife 

 may be pegged down around the plant, or, better still 

 (and always in the case of branches off the ground), 

 pegged down into a good-sized pot; in the latter case, 

 when the layer has formed its roots, it can be severed from 

 the parent and the pot removed, and there is thus no 

 risk in moving it. Pines and suchlike can be treated in 

 this manner. 



Juvenile Forms. — As in the descriptions which follow 

 occasionally the expression " juvenile foliage " occurs, it 

 may be as well to discuss juvenile forms generally. 



Anyone who has raised plants from seed will recollect 

 that the leaves which first appear differ considerably 

 from those which the seedling later assumes. In the 

 case of conifers, these first, or juvenile leaves, are as a rule 

 gradually replaced by the adult foliage, but there are 

 notable exceptions, especially among the junipers, some 

 junipers retaining their juvenile foliage permanently and 

 exclusively, and others continuing to grow odd sprays of 

 juvenile with their adult foliage. But with the majority 

 of conifers the juvenile foliage soon disappears, and of 

 those which as a rule lose their juvenile foliage entirely, 

 so far only among the cypresses, the thuyas and crypto- 

 merias do we find rare seedling forms which permanently 

 and exclusively retain their juvenile foliage. These 

 " juvenile forms " are in several cases very similar in 



