184 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



Tender Eoses, as well as hardy, may be rapidly propagated 

 by root-cuttings, as is now generally practised with the 

 Bouvardias, and at all seasons, provided the cuttings are 

 taken at a time when the plants are in a semi-dormant 

 condition. This may oocur in the autumn, if the plants 

 have been growing in the open ground, or in spring with 

 those that have been forced in the house during winter. 

 Because certain kinds of plants may be propagated 

 freely from ripe or green cuttings, it does not follow that 

 they may also be propagated by root-cuttings. For in- 

 stance, cuttings of the branches of the common Catalpa 

 tree may be struck almost as freely as the Willow, but I 

 have never known of a root-cutting having been made to 

 produce a bud. I have kept the cuttings between layers 

 of moss and in a greenhouse for twelve months, and at the 

 end of that time they were perfectly sound and fresh, 

 and while they had thrown out numerous rootlets, there 

 were no indications of buds. J. C. London, in all of his 

 works where he has occasion to refer to this tree, says that 

 it can be, or is, propagated by root-cuttings, and this 

 statement has been repeated by various authors since his 

 time, and I must confess to have been once misled and 

 named the Catalpa among the ligneous plants which 

 could be readily propagated by root-cuttings. The Paul- 

 ownia tree, which is not distantly related to the Catalpa, 

 is so readily propagated by root-cuttings, that nursery- 

 men prefer this mode to any other. On the contrary, 

 there are other woody plants, such as some of the Moss 

 Eoses, which almost defy the skill of the experienced 

 propagator to force roots from the ripe wood, and yet 

 cuttings of their roots grow very readily when treated in 

 the same way as advised for those of the Easpberry and 

 Blackberry. It is not to be supposed, however, that all 

 of the known species of the Eose can be multiplied as 

 readily from cuttings of their roots as the common 

 Blackberry, but there are many that can be, and no 



