PROPAGATION. 225 



other shrubs which have a neat head at the end of the branch, 

 layering should be done as near the end as will allow of the 

 head forming the plant at once ; and this especially apphes 

 to rhododendrons, and all others that bloom at the ends of the 

 joints. 



Many ornamental fruit-trees are propagated by layering. 

 Any plant that emits fibrous roots in abundance can be always 

 layered, although this habit greatly facilitates the striking 

 of cuttings ; but the advantage of layers over cuttings is that 

 we can make a much larger plant in a season ; and indeed 

 in many cases a plant is fit to put out, where it is perma- 

 nently to stand, at the end of the first season, where a cutting 

 would be almost insignificant although firmly rooted. Many 

 plants will root when layered, that would not, with ordinary 

 means, strike freely as cuttings ; and some will not strike at 

 all. Layering is therefore a desirable operation with a very 

 large portion of nursery stock ; and those who have choice 

 shrubs in plantations should always turn to account any 

 branches that come near the bottom, by layering them in the 

 autumn ; for they would be able to take up the next autumn 

 duplicates of many of their best plants. Where shrubs have 

 been growing for a considerable time among others, and there 

 has been a great fall of the leaf, many of the branches will be 

 found completely earthed up, as it were, with the accumula- 

 tions of leaf-mould ; and it is these branches that will in 

 many cases be found already rooted, especially laurustinus, 

 Pyrus japonica, azaleas, hardy heaths, and such like ; and 

 in taking one of these old plants up to remove, it will be 

 found that we can take off numerous rooted plants, which 

 have only to be pruned and planted out. By jiruning we 

 mean, cut back pretty well to the ground, because it is clear 

 that, although they have rooted, they have always had the 

 assistance of the parent plant, and therefore, when entirely 

 separated at once, they would not be capable of supporting 

 all the growth that they had made while on the old plant ; and 

 that, with such a sudden check, the less they have to support, 

 the better they will succeed. The self-made layers are gene- 

 rally good plants ; but the spontaneous rooting of branches 

 which grow from under the surface, or by their own weight 

 press down to the ground, could not be depended on for a 

 supply ; and the j^lantation of stools, as the parents are called, 

 for the purpose of layering all the available branches year 



p 



