jaS How to propagate Shrubs. 



as to have turned brown. Cuttings of the green wood should be planted 

 on the north or shady side of a hedge or fence. If the sun lies upon 

 them early in the morning or late in the afternoon, it will do no harm, 

 but they need shelter from it through the heat of the day. They may 

 be planted in sandy soil and covered with hand-glasses, or in pots or 

 boxes, which latter plan is the better of the two. A frame covered 

 with glass must be provided for them. It may be made by nailing 

 together four boards, and covering them, in the absence of better, with 

 an old window-sash. In the frame thus provided place your pots and 

 boxes of cuttings, and cover them with the glass. Every morning, when 

 the lower surface of the glass is covered with dew, turn it over, placing 

 the dry side downwards ; and if the leaves of the cuttings are wet, it 

 will be well not to replace the glass till they are dry. The soil in the 

 boxes, which should be light and sandy, must be kept neither very 

 moist nor very dry. After a week or two the glass may be removed at 

 night. Some green wood cuttings will strike root within ten days, 

 while others require several weeks. 



Root-aittlngs. — These are sections of roots, one or two inches 

 long, covered with soil, cither in the open ground or in boxes in the 

 greenhouse. Planted in the sjDring, in the open ground, they will form 

 plants during the same season, and their growth is quickened and made 

 more certain by the use of bottom heat in the greenhouse. This, how- 

 ever, is rai'ely necessary, and the amateur can perfectly well dispense 

 with it. All that he need do is, to cut the roots into short pieces, dig a 

 shallow trench or di'ill, and bury them in it to the depth of about three 

 inches. They will then " come up " like seeds. The shrubs capable 

 of propagation in this way arc those which have a tendency to throw 

 up suckers from the root, either at a distance from the main stem, 

 or close around it. Among them are many of the spiraeas, Japan 

 quince, lilacs, calycanthus, rose acacia, and the climbers bignonia and 

 celastrus, besides numerous others. Whenever, on digging up the 

 roots, dormant buds or " eyes " arc visible upon them, it is certain that 

 they can easily be raised from root-cuttings ; but the converse of the 

 statement docs not always hold good, for some root-cuttings will grow 

 when the dormant buds upon them are wholly indistinguishable. 



