PROPAGATING 69 



bottom of the hole. It is fatal if the tiny growth 

 should be suspended, as it were, by its neck, owing to the 

 hole having been made too deep. As the holes are 

 made all round the edge of the pot, the dry silver sand 

 falls into them to some extent, and seems to benefit 

 the cuttings, inducing them to root quicker than if it 

 were not employed. 



When all the cuttings are inserted, say half-an- 

 inch apart, and all round the edge, which position is 

 selected because the roots appear to relish the equable 

 conditions of moisture which prevail there, I put the label 

 denoting the name of the subject into the middle of the 

 pot, and stand the whole in a dish of water, so that it may 

 be thoroughly moistened. The water rises, by capillary 

 attraction, into the soil, and after draining awhile, it 

 can be plunged to its rim in the ash of the close frame. 



I use this method for such other plants as the follow- 

 ing, Cistus, Pentstemon, Lithospermum, dwarf conifers, 

 Arabis and Aubrietias. In each of the above cases I use 

 the current year's growth, when about two inches long. 



The last way of propagating, and one which appears 

 to me to be the most satisfactory, though perhaps less 

 rapid, is raising the plants from seed. It will be readily 

 understood that in the foregoing cases we are continuing 

 the plant from the same source, merely taking a piece 

 of it away and inducing it to form new roots. In the 

 case of plants raised from seed, however, a marked 



5a 



