58 CUTTAGE. 



The particular method of making the cutting, and the 

 treatment to which it should be subjected, must be deter- 

 mined for each species or genus. Some plants, as many 

 maples, can be propagated from wood two or three years 

 old, but in most cases the wood of the previous or present 

 season's growth is required. Nearly all soft and loose- 

 wooded plants grow readily from hard-wood cuttings, 

 while those with dense wood are generally multiplied more 

 easily from soft or growing wood. Some plants, as oaks 

 and nut-tress, are propagated from cuttings of any descrip- 

 tion only with great difficulty, although the hickories grow 

 rather freely from soft tip-cuttings of roots. It is probable, 

 however, that all plants can be multiplied by cuttings if 

 properly treated. It often happens that one or two species 

 of a closely defined genus will propagate readily from 

 cuttings while the other species will not, so that the propa- 

 gator c mes to learn by experience that different treatment 

 is profitable for very closely related plants. For instance, 

 most of the viburnums are propagated from layers in 

 commercial establishments, but V. plicatum (properly Vi- 

 burnum tomentosum] is grown extensively from cuttings. 



2. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF CUTTINGS. 



Cuttings are made from all parts of the plant. In its 

 lowest terms, cuttage is a division of the plant itself into 

 two or more nearly equal parts, as in the division of crowns 

 of rhubarb, dicentra, and most other plants which tend to 

 form broad masses or stools. This species of cuttage is 

 at times indistinguishable from separation, as in the divid- 

 ing of lily bulbs (page 27), and at other times it is essen- 

 tially the same as layerage, as in the dividing of stools 

 which have arisen from suckers or layers. This breaking 

 or cutting up of the plants into two or more large parts 

 which are already rooted is technically known as Division, 

 and is discussed in Chapter II. It is only necessary, in 

 dividing plants, to see that one or more buds or shoots 



