112 A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



TO PART THE ROOTS. 



This is the most advisable way to propagate for ama- 

 teurs. In May, take the roots and plant them in the open 

 ground, leaving the crown, or part where the eyes are situ- 

 ted, out ; you will soon see them sprout, and, when suffi- 

 ciently developed, take them up and divide the root with a 

 knife, so as to leave one eye to every tuber. Then put 

 them in pots until the time of planting, and water occa- 

 sionally, just to keep them in a growing state. At the 

 same time, be sure to keep the plants out of the reach of 

 frost by covering them up, or you will lose them. 



TO CULTIVATE BY SLIPS. 



For this mode of cultivation it is necessary to prepare 

 a hot bed, in April, of stable manure, in the usual way, as 

 you would to raise early vegetables, and when the heat is 

 about half spent, which will be in about ten days, put in 

 the roots, leaving the crowns out of the soil. When your 

 sprouts are three or four inches long, slip them off with 

 the thumb, or a knife ; then place your slips in a thumb 

 (two inch) pot filled with a light soil (only one in each 

 pot), and return it to the hot bed, giving plenty of water, 

 and only sufficient air to keep them from damping off In 

 three weeks you will find them sufficiently rooted to be 

 repotted into a larger one. They should then be placed 

 in -a frame and hardened gradually. In this way you may 

 continue as long as your plants will sprout. Those sprout- 

 ed first will make the best plants ; for the more the plants 



