CHAPTER XLV. 



THE GREAT NECESSITY FOR USING ONLY THE HEALTH- 

 IEST PLANTS FOR CUTTING, GRAFTING AND INARCH- 

 ING. NO IMPROVEMENT TO BE REACHED BY FORC- 

 ING THE PLANTS. 



IN looking over the preceding chapters, I find that 

 though I have spoken of the propriety of selecting healthy 

 plants for propagation, either by cuttings, by grafting, or 

 by inarching, I have not insisted upon it perhaps quite as 

 strongly as I should, yet there is hardly anything con- 

 nected with the propagation of the Camellia which is of 

 more importance than this. 



In this country, only the single varieties of the 

 Camellia Japonica, and but a very small portion of them, 

 are raised from the seed. 



All the double and half double varieties, and many of 

 the single ones, are propagated by grafting and inarching, 

 or from cuttings. 



This is a necessity, because the full flowering double 

 kinds never perfect seed; and if they did, it would not 

 be true to the parent flower. 



These modes of propagation are all artificial, and in 

 this plant, as in almost all others which* are propagated by 

 cuttings, there is a strong tendency to deteriorate, as for 

 instance the worthless variety of candidissima which never 



flowers. 



128 



