40 BUDDING, GRAFTING, INARCHING, ETC. [CH. 



has been most likely in themselves. They have been, 

 for example, anxious to have a good bed of Mignonette 

 or Nemophila, and they have, accordingly, taken unusual 

 pains to prepare the ground for it, made the soil fine 

 and loose as we have before explained it should be 

 and yet it has failed. The reason is very often this : they 

 have scattered the Mignonette on this well-prepared soil, 

 but without having previously given it a thorough 

 drenching from the rose of the water-pot, and so the 

 seed has fallen upon the open and porous earth, and 

 the next rain has carried both the seed and the finer 

 part of the soil down through the open spaces of the 

 freshly prepared earth never to come up again, and it 

 has, probably, also washed away the thin covering from 

 the remaining grains of seed with an equally sad result. 

 Before sowing seed in pots, boxes, or in the border it 

 is, therefore, always well to make good use of the 

 watering-pot, so as to consolidate the soil and drainage 

 previous to intrusting our seeds to its keeping. 



CHAPTER VIII 



BUDDING, GRAFTING,* INARCHING, LAYERING, AND 

 STRIKING 



THE propagation of plants otherwise than by seed is 

 effected by various processes of more or less difficulty ; 

 * These operations are only necessary when plants cannot as 

 readily and as well be grown from layers or cuttings. 



