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varieties, which differ in their leaves, stems, and 

 flower?. 



CuUitre. — All the sorts are capable of being 

 increased, b)- parting or slipping the roots : this, 

 vith the first kind, "should be performed in the 

 autumn or very early spring season, planting 

 them immediately as edgings, or in the borders; 

 they should not however be parted too small. 



When planted out as edgings, a quantity of 

 slips should beobtained in these seasons from old 

 plants, by slipping or dividing the off-sets of 

 their roots, each sTip being furnished with roots 

 and tops; then, having made up the edge of the 

 bed or border even and firm, planting them 

 either with a dibble in one range, two or three 

 inches distance in the row ; or to form at once 

 a close edging, so near as to touch one another, 

 or in a small trench, close, as in planting box- 

 edgings : tliese edgings should every summer, 

 iiTMiiediately after ^flowering, be trimmed with 

 garden-shears, or a knife, to cut off all the de- 

 cayed flower-stalks close to the bottom ; like- 

 wise to trim in any projecting irregularity of the 

 edging at the sides or top : also when it spreads 

 considerably out of bounds, should be cut in 

 evenly on each side, in due proportion ; per- 

 forming those trimmings in moist weather, and 

 not too late in autumn, otherwise the drought 

 of summer, or the cold in winter, will be apt 

 to injure them when newly cut, and cause them 

 to have a shabby disagreeable appearance : but 

 when these edgings grow considerably out of 

 bounds, or become very irregular, it is neces- 

 sary to take them up, slip the plants small, and 

 immediately replant them again as before, in a 

 neat regular edging : they sometimes require re- 

 planting every threeorfour yeais in this manner. 

 The second sorts may likewise be raised by 

 parting the roots in the autumn or spring, pre- 

 serving some mould to them, and planting them 

 out again immediately, being placed in an east 

 border, where the soil is loamy. 



They may also be raised from seeds obtained 

 from abroad, sowing tliem on a similar border, 

 keeping the plants clean, and when of sufficient 

 growth" planting them out in pots: it is the 

 common practice in treating the second sort, ac- 

 cording to Martyn, to consider it as a green- 

 house plant; and it appears to the greatest ad- 

 vantage in a pot, as it is much disposed to throw 

 up new flowering- stems : by having several 

 pots, some plants will be in flower throughout 

 the summer ; on this account, and for the 

 singularity of its large blue calyx, it is a plant 

 that merits attention. The Echioides is also a 

 green-house plant. 



The eighth, ninth, tenth sorts, Sec, may be 

 increased by planting cuttings of the young 



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shoots, in Julv, in a shady border, watering 

 them frequently: when the plants have a little 

 arowth, they should be taken up and placed in 

 separate pots, filled with light loamy mould, 

 ptitting th '111 in the shade till rerooted : the 

 plants'of these sorts must be removed into shel- 

 ter in the autumn, but they only require pro- 

 tection from bard frost, of course may be placed 

 with myrtles, and other hardy green-house 

 plants, where they often continue to flower a 

 great part of winter, and make a pretty variety ; 

 These sorts afford variety among other potted 

 more hardy green-house plants. 



STAVE'S" ACRE. See Delphinium. 

 STOCKS, such young trees as are raised 

 from seed, suckers, layers, and cuttings, and 

 designed for the reception of grafts and buds of 

 oiheV trees, to continue them the same and be- 

 come trees in every respect like the parent trees 

 from which they were taken. 



Stocks for general use arc proper when from 

 the size of a good large goose-quil to half an 

 inch, or not more than an inch thick, in the 

 part where the graft. Sec, is to be inserted ; but 

 •they are sometimes used when two or three 

 inches in diameter: these are made use of in 

 most kinds of fruit-trees, and occasionally for 

 some varieties of forest and ornamental trees, 

 and many of the shrub kind : they should in 

 general be species or varieties of the same genus 

 as the trees with which they are to be engrafted. 

 They are usually divided into three kinds ; as 

 Crah Stocks, Free Stocks, and Dwarf Stocks, 

 each comprehending various sorts, both ot the 

 same and different genera, species, and va- 

 rieties. 



Crab Stocks. — ^These are all such as are raised 

 from seeds, &c., of any natural or ungrafted 

 trees, particularly of the fruit-tree kind ; such 

 as the crab-apple of the woods and hedges, any 

 kind of wild thorny uncultivated pears, plums,_ 

 wild black and red cherry, &c., and also of 

 such trees as have been grafted or budded : some 

 sorts, being strong shooters and hardy, are pre- 

 ferred, on which to graft particular species, to 

 improve the size and duration of the trees ; for 

 example, apples are very commonly worked 

 upon the common wild crab stock, and cherries 

 on the great wild black and red cherry stock, as 

 tending to promote a large, hardy, and durable 

 growth, proper for common standards and the 

 larger kinds of dwarf trees. In using crab stocks 

 to graft any sorts of fruit-trees, it is proper to 

 reject such of them as assume a very wild crab- 

 like growth, or of a stunty, thorny nature, pre- 

 ferring those that are the freest clean growers : 

 sometimes, however, the appellation of crab 

 stocks is given to all stocks indiscriminately. 



