PROPAGATING 67 



growths which are in suitable positions, and burying a 

 few inches of them where they can be bent down so as 

 to touch the soil, and upon this buried piece, place a 

 stone, which both holds the growth in position, and 

 prevents the fine light soil I have put round it from 

 drying up too readily. In the case of the Acantho- 

 iimon it is advisable to cut the branch half way through 

 at the point where it is to be buried. After some time, 

 varying from a few weeks in the case of the Alpine 

 Phloxes, to eight to ten months with the Acantholimon, 

 it will be found that the branch has thrown out roots 

 into the fine light soil about it, and it can then be 

 severed from the parent and planted in its final position. 

 A third method of propagating, usually adopted 

 where the two former plans are less easily employed, 

 is that of cuttings. By this term I mean a piece of 

 the plant definitely cut off, which would not have 

 rooted had it been left alone, and consequently different 

 from the case of the offsets of the resetted Saxifrages 

 and Sempervivums, which normally reproduce in that 

 way. This plan I generally adopt with the smaller 

 and rarer Saxifrages, like S. burseriana, apiculata, 

 Elizabethce, and consists of cutting out some of the small 

 growths, taking off with a very sharp knife the lower 

 leaves from each piece and then inserting them into a 

 pot, containing suitable light gritty soil, which can be 

 plunged into ash in a close frame, that is a box with a 



