50 PROPAGATION OF ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS. 



2. Cuttings should be made from slioots or stalks of a 

 prior year's growth ; and such should be selected as are well 

 ripened, having their joints not far apart : they may be cut 

 so as to have three or four joints in each cutting. In some 

 species of succulent plants, the joints being near together, 

 cuttings need not be more than from four to six inches long ; 

 but shrubby plants in general will admit of their being from 

 ten to twelve inches. 



3. Layers differ from cuttings in nothing, except that 

 they strike root into the soil, while yet adhering to the parent 

 plant. 



4. Suckers are in reality young plants, connected to the 

 parent at the root, which should be carefully separated iu 

 spring or autumn, and transplanted in the same manner as 

 plants raised by any other method ; either in a nursery -bed, 

 shrubbery, or flower-border. 



5. Scions are of two sorts ; scions properly so called, and 

 buds. A scion is a cutting, or portion of a plant, which is 

 caused to grow upon another plant, from which it extracts 

 fluid for the nouiishment of its leaf buds ; these thus fed, 

 gradually grow upward into branches, and send woody mat- 

 ter downward, so as to become connected with the stock 

 grafted on. 



The business of planting slips, cuttings, &c., of the tender 

 kinds into nursery pots, and the hardy kinds into borders, is 

 generally performed in spring and autumn ; there are, how- 

 ever, some exceptions to this rule, which will be explained 

 hereafter. [See Calendar and Index.] 



For the purpose of raising hardy flowering shrubs by 

 slips or cuttings, let a border be prepared in a shaded and 

 sheltered situation, by manuring and deep digging. Pro- 

 vide plants about a foot long, and insert them into the gi'ound 

 full one-third of their length ; the rows may be about two 

 feer apart, and the plants nine inches from each other in the 

 rows. Press the ground around the stems, and rake it 

 smooth. The after management of nursery beds made in 



