AKD CONSEETATOET. G7 



divide it into as many plants as it has centres of growth, each 

 portion having a few roots attached. The best way to learn the 

 art is to practice on stools of chrysanthemums in spring, for 

 they are easy to divide, and the destruction of a few by 

 unskilful handling will not entail a serious loss. 



A considerable number of useful plants may be propagated 

 from leaves, and the practice is of great value when it is 

 desired to obtain stock of an expensive variety. In the case 

 of begonias and coleus, which may be increased in this way, 

 the leaves are merely laid on a surface of moist sand, and kept 

 in their places with little wooden pegs. Sometimes the leaves 

 are clipped partly across by a pair of scissors to hasten the 

 production of roots and buds. In the case of several succu- 

 lents, such as echeverias, the leaves are removed so as to leave 

 a clean scar on the stem, and are fixed with their bases on or 

 in a surface of sand by driving a little peg through them. The 

 time to remove the leaves for the purpose is when they are 

 " ripe," that is full grown, quite mature, but not yet showing 

 signs of decay. 



Cultivation consists in providing at every stage of the life 

 of a plant conditions favorable to increase of the individuals 

 or full development in any form desired (and possible) of in- 

 dividual specimens. The treatment to which the principal 

 groups or classes of plants are to be subjected for the attain- 

 ment of these ends will be described in the chapters that follow, 

 but a few important generalities may be usefully disposed of 

 now. In any and every case it is well to wait until a plant 

 has filled with its roots the pot it occupies before shifting it 

 into one of a larger size. In any and every case it is well to 

 " stop," that is, pinch the points of the shoots, or prune with 

 the knife, some little time before the shift is made, and to give 

 the shift when the new shoots that the stopping process has 

 caused the plant to produce have grown about half an inch or 

 so. In other words, never stop and shift at the same time. 

 A " large shift" means transferring the plant to a pot two or 

 three sizes larger than the one it occupied before the shift. 

 This practice is followed with advantage in the case of fast- 

 growing and free-rooting plants of soft texture, such as the 

 hydrangea, for example. A "small shift" means transferring 

 to a pot only one size larger, and is the only safe practice with 

 slow growing plants of hard texture, such as the erica. Tho 



