PROPAGATOR. 



397 



PROPAGATOR, 



plants proceeding from rhizomes, as the 

 daisy, polyanthus, Solomon's Seal, &c., anc 

 in all herbaceous plants. Solomon's Seal, 

 for example, may be cut into pieces 

 provided that each piece has an eye or 

 bud from which it may sprout upwards, 

 and roots below. Herbaceous plants 

 should be divided in the spring, when 

 growth is commencing. They will then 

 separate readily into portions, each replete 

 with buds for its upper growth, and roots 

 for its growth below ground. 



5. In Propagation by Runners, all that 

 has to be done is -to peg down the runner, 

 or place a weight on it so as to prevent it 

 from being moved by any cause, and to 

 give the young plant that issues from any 

 knot or division an opportunity of rooting 

 itself in the soil. When sufficiently well 

 rooted, the young plant can be removed. 

 This has been explained in speaking of 

 plants that propagate themselves by stoles 

 or runners like the strawberry. 



6. In Propagation by Suckers, which in 

 point of fact are underground runners, all 

 that is necessary is to dig them up with 

 care and to cut them away as near the 

 parent plant as possible, so as to retain the 

 roots which have issued from it between its 

 point of issue from the main root, and that 

 of its appearance above ground. All 

 suckers should be headed back frrm one- 

 fourth to one-half their length to lessen 

 the demand on the roots for nutriment, 

 immediately after separation from the 

 parent plant. 



See also Budding, &c. ; Cuttings, Pro- 

 pagation by ; Grafting ; Inarching ; Layer- 

 ing, Propagation by ; Pipings, Propagation 

 by ; Ringing; Seeds, Mode of Sowing, &~Y. 



Propagator. 



Generally speaking, this is a contrivance 

 of recent introduction, and it will not be 

 wrong to attribute its introduction to the 

 rapid strides with which gardening has 



advanced of late years in this country, and 

 the desire which has arisen among those 

 who cannot afford to lay out much in the 

 pursuit of this special hobby to find the 

 means of raising seedlings and striking 

 cuttings on a small scale, on principles 

 identical with those on which the profes- 

 sional gardener raises and strikes these on 

 a larger scale, either for sale to his various 

 customers, or for the embellishment and 

 adornment of private gardens, more or less 

 extensive, of which he has the care. The 

 principle involved in the propagator is the 

 maintenance in an enclosed space of a 

 temperature that will cause the germination 

 of seeds, or the formation of a callus and 

 the subsequent emission of roots at the 

 lower end of a cutting, in less time than 

 that in which germination or rooting could 

 be effected in the open air, or under a 

 handlight at the proper season of the year, 

 or at a time at which natural processes 

 could not take place in the open air, or 

 under the protection that has just been 

 mentioned. The question naturally arises, 

 How is the temperature to be obtained 

 that will promote and effect these natural 

 processes more speedily and at times and 

 seasons otherwise than those at which 

 Nature herself would carry them out in 

 the ordinary course of the seasons and 

 under ordinary conditions? To this the* 

 reply is : By the application of bottom 

 heat. 



Propagator, Construction of. 



The propagator, speaking generally, is a 

 small frame or structure by which plants 

 may be raised and cuttings struck by the 

 application of heat below the seeds or 

 cuttings by artificial means. It generally 

 assumes the form of a miniature greenhouse, 

 with a slanting pane of glass by way of 

 roof, and is divided into two stages, storeys, 

 or chambers an upper one under the 

 glass, in which the growing process goes 



