202 PRACTICAL PLANT PROPAGATION 



LYCIUM. Matrimony Vine. 



SEEDS. Sow seeds as soon as ripe. 



CUTTINGS. Hard wood, one year old. Soft wood in Summer. 



MACLURA. (Toxylon) Osage Orange. 



SEEDS. In Spring soak in warm water for forty-eight hours, then sow. 

 CUTTINGS. Green wood indoors. 



MAGNOLIA. 



*SEEDS. Jenkins writes: 



After the red seeds of Magnolia are gathered from the pods, put 

 them in a tub, or bucket, with enough water to barely cover them. 

 Stir occasionally. In a few days the red, pulpy covering will be softened 

 and may be rubbed from the black seed, or seed proper, in the hands; 

 or, place the seeds in a coarse sieve and rub the pulp through the 

 meshes into a running stream. The meshes of the sieve must be 

 fine enough to retain the black seed. Then mix lime or wood ashes 

 with the seed to cut the oily matter that appears to interfere with 

 germination. 



Joseph Meehan writes: 



Sow the seeds in early Spring, keeping them in a moist condition from 

 the time they are gathered. Some sow the seeds in Autumn, some after 

 they are gathered, placing a covering of leaves over them for the 

 Winter. But keeping them in slightly damp soil all Winter and sowing 

 early in Spring is a sure way; of course, watching the seeds right along 

 through the Winter to see that everything is right. 



Layering. The old way of layering is the most solid of all. This is the 

 time to cut back almost to the ground the stocks desired for layering pur- 

 poses. Take some real heavy plants and cut them back to but a few eyes 

 above the ground. This will cause the growth of strong, young shoots, 

 which are just the sort needed for layering. The work should be done 

 as soon as the shoots are of length enough to permit of it. If put down 

 early, they will be nicely rooted by Fall, but should not be cut off 

 from the parent plants before Spring. Old hands at propagating aver 

 that but little is lost by allowing the layers to remain undisturbed for 

 two years. In this way, too, the old plants are permitted to have a 

 year's rest from layering, strengthening them, as the cutting down 

 and layering the same plants year after year weakens them. This will 

 lead propagators to have two sets of plants for layering, working one 

 set one year, the other the next, which is much the better plan. 



CUTTINGS. Half-ripe under glass. 



BUDDING. Use M. acwninata, the Cucumber Tree, or M. tripetala, 

 the Umbrella Magnolia, as a stock. For standards the bud is 

 inserted at height of five to six feet. 



GRAFTING. M. tripetala better, because of abundance of fibrous roots 

 which make transplanting safer. Performed under glass. Side 

 cleft grafting is preferred. To increase the size of M. glauca it is 

 successfully grafted on some larger growing species. 



INARCHING. Successful. 



*LAYERING. Low growing sorts especially M. Soulangeana, M. 

 Lennei, M. stellatd. 



MAHONIA. Oregon Grape. 



SEEDS. Grow easily if sown soon after ripening. 

 CUTTINGS. Half-ripe wood under glass. 



MEDLAR. (See Mespilus.) 



