PROPAGATION BY LAYERS. 45 



with a sharp knife, which causes the juices of the plant to 

 exude and form a spongy mass of cellular matter (" callus "), as 

 is the case in cuttings. This callus is a sure sign of the ap- 

 pearance of roots. This is the common and most simple plan 

 of layering, but not always practicable. The mountain will not 

 go to Mohammed, and then Mohammed must go to the moun- 

 tain. This is so in the case of erect-growing or tall-growing plants, 

 and then a modification of layering is resorted to, exactly the 

 same in its effects, but a little different in practice. In the 

 case of Dracaenas, which frequently become what is technically 

 termed " leggy " that is, devoid of foliage below it is advis- 

 able to lower them ; and a pot, or the two halves of a pot, with 

 the drainage-hole enlarged, is placed around the stem just 



Simple Layering (Privet.) 



below the leaves, and the bark is slit with a knife so as to 

 cause a callus to form. The pot is then filled up with soil, 

 and is kept continually moist. Sometimes this plan is slightly 

 modified, a bunch of wet moss being substituted for the pot of 

 earth. This plan may be modified or utilised in a hundred 

 different ways by the intelligent cultivator, and is especially 

 applicable in the case of indoor or tropical plants and Vines, 

 where the part required to root (" strike ") is too large or other- 

 wise inconvenient as a cutting. Ringing a desirable or suitable 

 branch, and the application of moist clay or earth, which is 

 kept in its position by split Bamboo or by cloth bandages, 

 seems to be a common method of propagation by nearly all 

 Eastern nations ; and the Chinese and Japanese use this plan 



