PROPAGATION BY LAYERS 77 



breaking them off the stem when bending down the shoots. 

 This can be certainly obviated by pressing short shoots 

 back on the stem while the layer is being placed in posi- 

 tion, and in the case of long shoots by twisting them quite 

 round, when they may be safely placed in any position 

 without breaking. In the case of shoots so elevated above 

 the soil that they cannot be layered, a simple and efficient 

 method consists in bringing the whole plant level with 

 the ground, and restaking it so that the layers are not 

 raised, but left close to the soil. As to soil for layers, in 

 light fertile ground nothing whatever is required, though 

 in that of a heavy nature a little leaf soil and sand placed 

 where the roots will be formed is of value. Too com- 

 monly, material is placed about the stems of the plants 

 and the layers inserted underneath this in the ordinary 

 soil. Another point is that a short shoot is commonly to 

 be preferred to a lengthy one for layering. Once roots 

 have been emitted in sufficient quantity to steady the 

 plant when the peg is withdrawn, the connection between 

 the parent and the layer should be severed, making the 

 cut quite close to the layer, where roots, in due time, will 

 also be emitted. Metal layering pegs are now sold 

 cheaply by horticultural sundriesmen, but in the country, 

 where bracken abounds, nothing is better than the stems 

 of this fern cut into short lengths, bent in the middle, 

 and used in that way. 



A simple form of layer is employed by market-growers 

 in the case of Clove Carnations. This consists in making 

 a notch in the stem, instead of a tongue, the cut portion 

 being pressed down and pinned into the soil, when roots 

 are duly emitted. 



In Germany, root-grafting has been attempted as a 

 means of strengthening the constitution of weakly varieties, 

 the plant used to supply the root-stocks being Saponaria 

 officina/ts the common soapwort. Grafting and budding, 



