PROPAGATION 21 



part of the root uppermost which was nearest the stem. They ought not 

 to be less than Jin. thick. 



The Paris Frame. A system of propagation without heat has 

 latterly come into use which has proved very useful in gardens too small to 

 justify the erection of the ordinary outfit of the propagator (bottom heat, etc.). 

 This is known as the " Paris frame," the method having come to us from 

 France. An ordinary one- or two-light frame is placed in an open spot 

 and filled to within 9 or 12 ins. of the glass with drainage and a mixture 

 of very sandy soil. In this the cuttings are inserted on the ordinary 

 plan after being made in the usual way. But their after-treatment is 

 radically different. The frame is never shaded, no matter how hot the 

 sun may be, and it is never ventilated except when watered, which it 

 must be once every hour during hot sunshine or even oftener during the 

 fiercest heat. These are the three essentials : no shade, no ventilation, 

 continual watering during bright sunshine. The last, of course, implies 

 the need of drainage. Some striking successes have been achieved by 

 this system, especially among those plants ordinarily needing fire-heat to 

 increase by cuttings. Although the watering demands constant attention 

 ,in hot sunny weather, the plan on the whole is very cheap, convenient 

 and useful. Some practitioners use pure sand for a rooting medium. 



GRAFTING. 



The practice of grafting is acquiring an evil reputation. In mediaeval 

 times it was the most venerated of all the operations common to 

 horticulture and the most cherished of the mysteries of the craft. The 

 late Mr F. W. Burbidge made the famous observation that it is "always 

 a makeshift, very often a fraud." A certain latitude must be accorded 

 to coiners of epigrams, but there is no doubt grafting has been much too 

 commonly practised by nurserymen. The latter part of Mr Burbidge's 

 statement no one can dispute. The grafting of cotoneasters on common 

 hawthorn, of phillyreas on privet, and of choice willows on common 

 sallow, can only fittingly be described as a "fraud." It is unnecessary, 

 because in each case the plants are easily obtained from cuttings ; it 

 weakens rather than improves their vigour, and suckers from the stock 

 are an endless bother and worry. Numerous other instances might be 

 given. 



Not always, however, is grafting a "makeshift." I have already 

 instanced Calophaca wolgarica as a shrub difficult to keep alive on its 

 own roots; to it may be added Caragana jubata and Halimodendron 

 argenteum. These shrubs inhabit dry regions with great winter cold, 

 and their roots appear unable to thrive under the wet, comparatively 

 warm conditions of our winters, at least in ordinary positions. Conse- 

 quently they are grafted on laburnum or Caragana arborescens^ which 



