PROPAGATIOlv. 253 



robust will root in cominon soil, and succeed •VN'ith much 

 rougher treatment. 



Eyes or Buds. — This is perhaps the most rapid of all pro- 

 pagation, so far as the mere number of plants produced is 

 concerned ; because, though it only appUes to plants to be 

 groTHi on their own roots, such plants are more valued than 

 worked ones. The raiser of a new vine, we will suppose, has 

 n dozen feet of good ripe wood, and is anxious to make the 

 most of it. Kobody would thank him for a budded plant ; 

 that is, a plant T\dth his new one worked on it. If he cuts up 

 his wood to make ordinary cuttings, every cutting must have 

 two eyes or joints ; but if he propagates by eyes, he makes a 

 plant of every one, thus doubling his number. The raising of 

 plants, therefore, from eyes is a nice and important operation. 

 What applies to a vine will apply to many other plants. The 

 datura, now called Brugmansia, sheds its leaves, and the wood 

 is soft, spongy, and a good deal of it green ; this plant is 

 especially propagated by eyes. Many other plants of a pithy 

 nature — the large kinds of fuchsia, such as fulgens, and even 

 larger, can be grown from eyes ; and if we really desire it, we 

 believe the camellia, the orange, and many other plants could 

 be as easily multiplied that way as any. But all hard-wooded 

 valuable plants, like the camellia and orange, can be propa- 

 gated most rapidly by budding ; in which case, every bud, 

 being put on a strong and vigorous growing stock, can be 

 grown into a head before it would on its own bottom be six 

 inches high. In preparing the buds of vines for propagation, 

 cut half an inch of wood above the eye and half an inch 

 below it. "Let the wood be cut in the autumn, and the 

 cuttings be kept with one end in the ground," say our fore- 

 fathers, " until the spring, when the eyes are to be cut with a 

 portion of wood to them." One author says, " Cut three 

 inches of wood below the eye and a quarter of an inch above 

 it ; " another says, " Cut as much wood above as below : " and 

 a third says, " Cut close up to the eye below and three inches 

 above." The latter is safe, and if such were placed in the 

 open ground as soon as the wood is thoroughly ripe, and 

 planted two inches below, they would come up, and root well 

 at the same time. But the ordinary way of propagating is, 

 to cut the eye with about half an inch of wood above and 

 below it ; get a quantity of pots of the size forty-eight, with 

 good rich soil, half loam from rotted turves, one-fourth <50W- 



