FLOWERS AND PLANTS. 325 



graft put on this has all the vigour of a two years' old root, 

 because the stock is cut down, and all the strength that would 

 go into the two years' old plant cut off is thrown into the graft 

 just put on ; this, of course, promotes stronger growth. In 

 consequence of this advantage, many subjects are grafted on 

 the strongest-growing species of the same genus, or one nearly 

 allied to it, as the quickest mode of propagation. But all the 

 other modes of propagation are occasionally adopted, and 

 especially by cuttings, which are the least troublesome and most 

 effective when a plant will strike root readily. Propagating 

 from seed is often resorted to for the sake of obtaining new 

 varieties, and the seed may always be sown as soon as it is 

 ripe, but it is frequently kept back till the spring, that the 

 young plants may have less hardship to go through than 

 they would if nursed in a young state through the winter. 

 Half-hardy, or frame plants, want just the same treatment ; 

 and most greenhouse plants would do as well in pits, which 

 are for the most part mere substitutes for greenhouses, and 

 only differ in not having hot-water pipes. Yet, when they 

 are covered up well, the frost rarely enters them. They are 

 used for azaleas, camellias, and other robust but not quite 

 hardy things. If the seeds of greenhouse plants are raised, 

 or the cuttings struck, in the stove or propagating house, they 

 should be brought into their own house as soon as possible ; 

 for heat, although it may promote growth, certainly does also 

 induce weakness, so that they should be gradually brought into 

 the greenhouse as soon as they are large enough to bear 

 the change. 



Many plants may be carried over from one season to 

 another by cuttings struck from time to time ; even mignonette 

 can be kept growing, but it is hardly fair to caU anything 

 a perennial that will not stand from season to season without 

 propagation. The Canterbury-bell is a true biennial, for it 

 must be sown one summer and bloom the next, and when 

 the seed ripens it dies. The Sweetwilliam and wallflower 

 are treated by most people as biennials, but the cuttings of 

 both will root and do well, and it is the only way the double 

 ones can be obtained. 



BULBS. 



It is much to be regretted, we think, that more attention 

 is not paid to this extensive and varied family in gardens of 



