PROPAGATION. 205 



gaps, must he resorted to, and then its beauty as a live fence is gone. 

 Another advantage is gained by sloping the sides of hedges, and that 

 is in respect of keeping them clean ; for when so cut, the twigs at 

 bottom, sharing in the dews and light, thrive and grow so close to the 

 ground, that few weeds can rise below them. Again, in fields, the 

 uniformity of surface which can be maintained with ease in hedges cut 

 on the sloping principle, prevents animals from readily attempting to 

 leap or make a breach in them. 



Mowing, as done by machines, is so well understood in garden- 

 ing, that it is useless to dwell upon it. All lawns and garden grass 

 should be cut weekly, to keep them in the highest condition of beauty, 

 verdure, and cleanliness. 



Weeding by hand is now almost unknown in gardens. Nearly all 

 crops being sown in drills, and the hoe destroying the weeds with 

 far greater despatch, no weed, except in seed-beds, or patches of seed, 

 should ever be allowed to grow large enough in gardens to permit of 

 the hand laying hold of it. The moment weeds are seen, the hoe should 

 be driven through them. 



Other labours with plants, such as tying and training, might be 

 enumerated, but these belong more properly to garden operations, and 

 will be fully dealt with in their proper place. 



Operations of Culture. 



Garden culture may be arranged under the heads of Propagation, 

 Rearing, Preservation, and Amelioration. 



Propagation. 



Plants are propagated either by seed, or by division. The latter 

 mode, including cuttings, joints, leaves, layers, suckers, slips, budding, 

 grafting, and inarching. All the modes of propagation by division are 

 founded on the principle that a bud, whether visible or latent, is 

 essentially the same as a seed, and will consequently produce a plant ; 

 and that, as there is a bud, either visible or in an embryo state, in 

 the axil of every leaf, it follows that for every leaf a plant contains, a 

 young plant may be originated by art. This, however, is not done 

 with equal ease in every species, and perhaps with some it may be 

 almost impracticable ; but it holds good with the great majority of 

 plants, and may therefore safely be laid down and acted on as a general 

 principle. There is an important difference between propagating by 

 seed and propagating by any of the other modes known to gardeners 

 viz., that in propagating by seed, the species in the abstract is propa- 

 gated, while in propagating by any of the other modes, the species is 

 continued with the habits of the individual parent. Thus, a shoot 

 taken from a weeping-ash, and grafted on a common ash, will produce 

 a tree like the parent ; while a seed taken from the weeping-ash will 

 not in general produce a weeping plant, but an upright growing one 

 like the species. Nevertheless this does not always hold good, even in 

 such trees as the weeping-ash and the weeping-oak ; and it does not 



