f 



""*< '" 



274 PROPAGATION BY LAYERS. 



by giving the layer a twist when pegging it down, as shown in fig. 184, in which 

 e is the tongue made in the shoot before being laid down, / the position 



taken by the tongue after the layer is fixed 

 in its place, and g the peg which keeps the 

 layer down. The dotted line in this and 

 the preceding figure indicates the surface 

 of the soil. Layers are always buried in 

 the soil, and secured there, and the soil 

 pressed firmly against them. The plant 

 furnishing the shoots which are layered is 

 called a stool, and as it generally furnishes 

 a number of shoots, these are laid down ra- 

 diating all round it, as in fig. 185, and the 

 soil formed into a circular basin, the better 

 to retain water about the rooted parts of 

 the layers. Layers that are difficult to 

 root are laid into pure sand with good S oil 

 beneath, as is done with cuttings difficult 

 to strike ; and the shoots laid down and layered are commonly shortened to 

 one eye above the soil, in order that there 

 may be only one stem to the plant to be 

 produced. See figs. 183 and 184. 



In former times when few trees were 

 propagated in nurseries, excepting limes 

 and elms, the shoots produced from the 

 stools were not laid down, but after two 

 years' growth the shoots were earthed up, 

 and after remaining on two years longer, 

 they were slipped off and found to have a 

 sufficient supply of roots to ensure their 

 independent existence, after, however, be- 

 ing cut in and headed dow r n. Some shrubs, such as hibiscus, vitex, are still so 

 propagated in French nurseries. Sometimes the circumference of the stool 

 was split or fractured to excite the buds ; and in Genoa, at the present day, 

 young orange trees are frequently cut down within a few inches of the soil, 

 and the stock and root split into four parts, which, after a year, can be 

 separated into as many distinct plants. 



623. Shrubs with very long shoots, such as clematis, tecoma, vitis, wistaria, 

 honeysuckle, &c., are stretched along the surface, and every joint, or every 

 alternate joint, prepared for rooting; so that one shoot produces half as 

 many plants as it contains joints, or even a plant for every joint. The joint 

 in this case is not tongued but bruised, pierced, or slit, or simply pressed down 

 to the moist soil by a hook, peg, or small stone the latter having the advan- 

 tage of retaining moisture, as well as checking the return of the sap. Shoots 

 which continue growing all the summer, such as those of the wistaria, are 

 laid as they extend in length ; and when the parent plant is placed on moist 

 heat, under glass, and near it, it is incredible the number of rooted layers 

 that may thus be obtained in one season. After such layers are formed, a 

 ring of bark may be taken off between each layer, which will prevent the sap 

 returned from the leaf which is left growing at each joint, from being sent 

 down to the parent root, and force it to go to the nourishment of the roots 

 sent down from the separate joints. 



Fig. 185. A stool with several of the shoots 

 layered. 



