PROPAGATION. 221 



touch it, and it must be renewed every day till the work is 

 done. 



We believe we have gone through our list of the principal 

 pests to which the gardener is subject, or at least such as 

 require remedies that will apply to aU ; and when it is con- 

 sidered that these are constantly at work, to the detriment of 

 something, and that the gardener, besides all his ordinary 

 labour, has to counteract their mischief, the subject, ex- 

 tensively as it has been noticed, is scarcely second in importance 

 to any of the subjects which have come under consideration. 



PROPAGATION. 



There is not a more important branch in the whole science 

 of gardening than that which comprises the various means 

 of propagating plants. It is true that vast numbers are 

 raised from seed, our culinary vegetables especially, and the 

 great mass of plants, carefully raised, — that is to say, raised 

 from seeds carefully saved, — come near enough to the original 

 to be considered the same for all useful purposes ; but it is 

 necessary to keep in mind that though in such matters as 

 culinary vegetables, which are grown by acres, and also in 

 the case of ordinary annuals, wliich are lost every season, we 

 find carefully raising the seed from the best plants keeps up 

 a supply close enough for all useful purposes, there is no de- 

 pendence on seed producing the individual kind from which 

 it is saved; the produce wiU not be the same in every 

 respect, and this is best known by those who save the seed of 

 a variegated holly, which will produce the original green 

 sort ; or the pips of an apple, which wiU produce the original 

 crab, or something very like it. Then, many plants will not 

 seed freely; accordingly, to propagate the identical novelty 

 which we may have obtained from seed, and which differs 

 fi^om aU we have already, or to increase any plant that we 

 have procured, we must resort to some of the many different 

 plans for propagating from the buds, or wood, or shoots of 

 the individual plant. In the case of annuals, which come 

 from seed, bloom perfect, then seed and die, we have no 

 alternative ; and therefore all we can do is to save the seed 

 constantly from the best, where there is no other of the same 

 family, but of a different kind, blooming, and so keep our 

 seed as good and as true as possible ; but with perennial 



