64 THE TREE PROPAGATOR AND PLANTER. 



They may be obtained by seed, by cuttings, by offsets, 

 or side- shoots, and by layers. 



By Cuttings. — As soon as the young wood has 

 become firm, take them off an inch or two long, trim 

 off the lower leaves, cut clean at right angles below a 

 leaflet, and insert the cuttings under a handlight on 

 a shady border in a compost of fine sandy peat ; or 

 insert them in seed-pans, and set them in a close frame 

 facing the north. 



By Layers. — During the autumn or spring lay the 

 branches in the ground, pegging them down, and, in 

 the course of twelve months, an abundance of young 

 plants may be taken off and planted out. 



By Seed. — In the summer gather the seed, preserve 

 it in dry bags till the spring, and in the month of 

 April sow it under handlights or in seed-pans filled with 

 fine peat. First let the drainage be good, then make 

 the soil firm, and water it so as to soak it through ; let 

 it remain for an hour or two, then sow the seed over 

 the even surface, and sprinkle enough fine sandy peat 

 over it to barely cover it, and set a handlight over it. 

 A little morning sun will be beneficial, but shade from 

 the sun the rest of the day, until the seedlings are well 

 up, then give air and light. The seed-pans may be set 

 in a shady part of the propagating-house with advan- 

 tage. 



The Hypericum, or St. John's Wort. 



These are all very useful and interesting shrubs, and 

 are remarkable for their hardiness of constitution. 

 Cahjcinum is distinguished for its fine foliage, large 

 flowers, and for growing on embankments and in dry 

 and poor soils, under shrubs, &c. All the St. John's 

 "Worts are remarkable for enduring poverty of soils and 

 droughts, and as the foliage is pretty and the flowers 

 are handsome, they would be most useful as low shrubs 

 on those open and dry grounds in America and Aus- 

 tralia, where few things else will live. 



The propagation of the genus is by offsets, cuttings, 

 and seed. By seed it may be raised freely. Sow in 



