230 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



will emit leaves, and then separate the bulb into as many 

 pieces as have growing parts to them ; put these pieces in 

 heat directly, in good rich soil, and you will soon have 

 plants. A bulb wiU generally divide into four or five pieces 

 when it has attained three years of age; and, if it grows 

 freely, perhaps sooner. Some plants, to be fine, really 

 require to be confined to one heart. The hollyhock ought to 

 be separated so that only one stem shall grow ; the auricula 

 is separated so that but one heart shall grow, and if more 

 than one appears, the weaker should be rubbed off or taken 

 off, for two trusses of fiowers could not be thrown from one 

 plant, in good condition and strength. The polyanthus also 

 should have but one heart and truss of bloom, and is not 

 allowed to be exhibited with more than one. 



Suckers. — Suckers which come from roots are of the same 

 nature as oflscts ; some, however, separate themselves, others 

 require the knife to part them ; but, strictly speaking, perhaps 

 all underground shoots of plants that emanate from the roots, 

 and form roots for themselves, may be called offsets ; but we 

 have treated such shoots when on hard-wooded trees and 

 shrubs, among layers and suckers ; for there are some trees 

 that so abound ^vith suckers that they may be cut off with 

 roots to them every season. Of this the nut, lilac, wild 

 plum, rose, and laurustinus form examples. The only reason, 

 perhaps, for not calling them offsets is, that they want 

 cutting or tearing away from the parent root, whether they 

 are one year or two years old ; whereas most of those called 

 offsets separate of themselves in time. Some tuberous roots 

 will propagate themselves by offsets, and may also be propa- 

 gated by parting ; for example, the potato : we take up a dozen 

 tubers, and each of these tubers is capable of being separated 

 into two or more pieces, according to the size of the tuber, or 

 rather the number of eyes it has got ; for every piece with 

 an eye to it may be grown, and form a separate plant, to 

 produce the next year a new crop, perhaps as large as the 

 one it came from. The next mode of propagating that we 

 shall notice is grafting. 



Grafting. — If a man desired to be a good workman at 

 grafting, he might be apprenticed to a whip maker, a fishing- 

 rod maker, or a fancy-stick maker, and learn all that he need 

 know in the actual manipulation of the art of grafting. It is 

 the art of joining two pieces of wood together neatly, and 



