CHAPTER II 



PROPAGATING CONIFERS 



Natural Reproduction from Seed. — Conifers are 

 propagated or increased by one of four different 

 methods — seed-sowing, grafting, layering, or the 

 insertion of cuttings. Seed-sowing is to be recom- 

 mended, but when seed is difficult to obtain, as is 

 not unfrequently the case with many conifers, pro- 

 pagation from cuttings, by layers or grafting, is 

 usually resorted to. Unless in the case of our 

 native conifers — the Scotch Pine, the Yew, and 

 the Juniper — self-sown specimens have rarely been 

 detected. There are, however, several exceptions 

 to this rule that have at various times come under 

 my notice. At Woburn Abbey both the Wey- 

 mouth and Bhotan Pines {Pinus Strobus and P. 

 excelsa) have reproduced their kind freely, particu- 

 larly the former, which in one of the pine woods 

 has grown so plentifully from seed that advantage 

 has been taken of these young plants to utilise 

 them as forest trees. 



At Holwood Park, in Kent, the property of 

 the Earl of Derby, some of the most promising 

 young specimens of Lebanon Cedar are such as 



were lifted from beneath one of the old trees, said 



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