60 LAYERS AND PIPINGS. 



pared mould round the plant as will raise the sur- 

 face to a convenient height for receiving the layer. 



Cut off the top of each shoot with your knife, 

 about two inches, and pull off the lower leaves ; 

 then fix upon a joint about the middle of the shoot, 

 and, placing your knife under it, slit the shoot from 

 that joint, rather more than half way up, towards 

 the joint above it. 



Now make an opening in the earth, and lay the 

 stem, and slit or gashed shoot, into it, and peg it 

 down ; taking care to raise the head of the shoot 

 as upright as you can, that it may grow shapely ; 

 then cover it with the new mould, and press the 

 mould gently round it. Do this by each shoot till 

 the plant is layered that is, till every shoot is laid 

 down. They must be watered often in dry weath- 

 er, but moderately, not to disturb or wash away the 

 soil round the layers. In six weeks' time, each 

 gashed or slit shoot will have rooted and become a 

 distinct plant. They may be taken away from the 

 old parent stem in September, and dug up with a 

 ball of earth round each root, to be transplanted 

 into the plots or borders where they are to remain. 



Carnations, pinks, sweet-williams, double wall- 

 flowers, &c., are the flowers most deserving of 

 layers. 



Piping, which belongs almost exclusively to car- 

 nations and pinks., is a most expeditious mode of 

 raising young plants. 



Take off the upper and young part of each shoot, 

 close below a joint, with a sharp knife, and cut 

 each off at the third joint, or little knob ; then cut 

 the top leaves down pretty short, and take off the 

 lower and discolored ones. When you have piped 

 in this way as many as you require, let them stand 



