PIPINGS, PROPAGATION BY. 372 



PLANT COVERS. 



the layers a little white sea-sand should be 

 added. Where layers of carnations and 

 picotees are potted, the best plan appears 

 to be to place them singly into small pots 

 for the winter months. In this way they 

 can be packed closely under common 

 frames, in old tan or cinder-ashes. Let 

 the newly potted layers have all the air 

 possible in fine weather ; but if the winter 

 prove severe, it will be necessary to cover 

 the glass with mats, straw, or pea-haulm. 



Pink pipings properly rooted should be 

 planted out in October; avoid the old 

 system of shortening the grass. Where 

 seed is required, the decaying petals should 

 be picked off. See also Carnation. 



Pipings, Propagation by. 



This method is applicable to plants with 

 tubular jointed stems, such as the pink and 

 carnation, though the latter are chiefly 

 propagated by layering, as it has been 

 said. It will be remembered that the stem 

 of the pink consists of a series of successive 

 joints or knots, a pair of leaves proceeding 

 from opposite sides of each joint. In 

 order to take the piping, the upper ex- 

 tremity of the shoot is held in the right 

 hand and the lower end in the left hand, 

 and the upper portion is gently pulled till 

 it comes away, exhibiting a tubular or pipe- 

 like termination at the end of the portion 

 of the stem that is thus removed. The 

 pipings are set in fine earth up to first 

 joint above the fracture, the soil is pressed 

 firmly round them, and they are then 

 sprinkled with water from a fine rose, and 

 covered with a handlight. 



Pit for Cuttings. 



To preserve cuttings from frost where 

 there is no greenhouse, dig a pit about 4- 

 feet deep, strew the bottom well with 

 ashes, and sink the pots in the same. 

 Over it place a common garden-frame, 

 bank up the outsides with straw and a 



coating of earth. In such a pit verbenas, 

 calceolarias, ageratums, fuchsias, &c., &c., 

 may be preserved during winter, provided 

 the pots be kept in the dark by being well 

 covered with matting in severe frost. 



A garden frame may be dispensed with, 

 provided that a bank of turf about 12 or 15 

 inches thick be raised round the edge of the 

 pit,about the same height behind, and from 

 6 to 9 inches in front, the sides being sloped 

 from the height of the top to the height of 

 the front, so that a light may be put over 

 the pit in the same position namely, a 

 sloping position that it always occupies 

 on the frame. And if there be any objec- 

 tion to making a pit in the soil, one equally 

 serviceable may be made by building the 

 turf to the height of 3 or 4 feet behind, 

 and about 6 inches less in height in front 

 than it is behind. The sides will be sloped, 

 and the whole covered with a garden-light, 

 as described above. 



Plant Covers or Protectors. 



These are equally well adapted in the 

 larger sorts and sizes for protecting half- 

 hardy plants and shrubs in the winter season 

 when the weather is more than usually incle- 

 ment, or for protecting plants from the sun in 

 summer, in the smaller sorts, when recently 

 transplanted and in absolute need of shade 

 until new rootlets have been formed, and 

 the plants have thus acquired a fair hold 

 on the soil and the means of extracting 

 moisture and nutriment from it. Some- 

 times the plant cover takes the form of a 

 basket, old hampers answering well for the 

 purpose if they be large enough, but if not, 

 a frame may be made of osiers, or of 

 wooden laths, about I inch wide and 

 inch thick, neatly framed together and 

 covered with canvas, matting, or even with 

 netting. It may also take the form of a 

 wooden box or frame, covered with oiled 

 paper, which will be found equally useful 

 for protecting lettuces, cauliflowers, &c., in 



