THE CHERRY ] 375 



The cherries can be propagated by cuttings. Well 

 ripened cuttings of the gean-tree (Prunus Avium) and 

 of most of its varieties or forms, planted in a shaded 

 situation in the open air in winter will root without much 

 difficulty. Cuttings of P. Cerasus and P. Mahaltb root 

 in the same manner. Herbaceous cutting^, made of 

 growing twigs, with or without a heel of the old wood, 

 planted in sand, under a glass bell, are sometimes made 

 use of for the propagation of the ornamental or double 

 flowering cherries. 



The cultivated cherries are best propagated by 

 budding or grafting. They are budded or grafted on 

 seedlings of the wild cherry or gean tree, on seedlings or 

 on suckers of the common cherry, and on seedlings or 

 sometimes on suckers of the Mahaleb cherry. Budding 

 may be done from April to September, and it is prefer- 

 able to bud close to the ground, or about 10 c.m. 

 above the ground level, even if it is proposed to rear the 

 cherry as standard. Grafting is performed in winter, 

 from December to February, cleft-grafting close to the 

 ground being the method generally adopted by our 

 gardeners. 



On the wild cherry ( P- Avium), or on seedlings of 

 the cultivated cherries, budding or grafting may be done 

 at some height above the ground, for the formation 

 of standards, but on the Mahaieb cherry it is advisable 

 to bud or graft always close to the ground level. The 

 hautbois cherry and other forms of the common cherry 

 ; P. Cerasus), may be budded or grafted as half- 

 standards, but it is also better to perform the operation 

 at ground level although the production of a swelling at 

 the point of union between the stock and the bud or 

 scion is less marked than in the case of the Mahaleb 

 cherry. 



For dry soils and hot climates the use of the Ma- 

 haleb stock is preferable by far to all others, and it seems 

 to impart its resisting qualities to most sorts of cultivated 



