166 

 BRIEF DIRECTIONS 



FOR THE 



PROPAGATION 



OF 



Flowering shrubs are variously propagated by slips, cut- 

 tings, layers, suckers, buds or scions; and these may be thus 

 defined. 



1. Slips are simply small branches, slipped down from 

 the side of a large branch, or from the main stem. These 

 should be taken from the parent plants, carefully, so as to 

 leave an eye or heel, at the lower or but-end. 



2. Cuttings should be made from shoots or stalks of a 

 prior year's growth ; and such should be selected as are well 

 ripened, having their joints not far apart : they may be cut 

 so as to have three or four joints in each cutting. In some 

 species of succulent plants, the joints being near together, 

 cuttings need not be more than from four to six inches long; 

 but shrubby plants in general will admit of their being from 

 ten to twelve inches. 



3. Layers differ from cuttings in nothing, except that they 

 strike root into the soil, while yet adhering to the parent 

 plant. 



4. Suckers are in reality young plants, connected to the 

 parent at the root, which should be carefully separated in 

 Spring or Autumn, and transplanted in the same manner as 

 plants raised by any other method ; either in a Nursery bed, 

 Shrubbery, or Flower border. 



5. Scions are of two sorts; scions properly so called, and 

 buds. A scion is a cutting, or portion of a plant, which is 

 caused to grow upon another plant, from which it attracts 

 fluid for the nourishment of its leaf buds ; these thus fed, 

 gradually grow upwards into branches, and send woody 

 matter downwards, so as to become connected with the stock 

 grafted on, 



