THE PINE AND FIR FAMILY. 26 1 



sowing. The rarer sorts are generally sown in pots, pans, or 

 boxes of rich moist earth ; and the protection of a pit or frame 

 is given them until they have advanced in growth sufficient to 

 be pricked out in lines in the nursery-beds. The more common 

 and hardier kinds are, however, sown at once in nursery or 

 seed beds a yard or 4 feet in width. The richer and more 

 friable the soil the better ; and the depth at which the drills 

 should be drawn must be regulated by the size of the seeds, 

 say from half an inch to i inch, which in the case of the 

 larger and stronger kinds will be amply sufficient. If these 

 seed-beds are sheltered by hedges of Yew, Juniper, Privet, or 

 Beech, so much the better. The seedlings may be lifted about 

 a year after they are sown, or in the April following, and 

 pricked out in lines 6 or 8 inches apart, leaving a space of 

 about an inch between each seedling plant ; and plants so 

 treated will be found to have made considerably more progress 

 than those left thickly in the seed-beds for two years, an old- 

 fashioned plan still largely practised. As a rule, seedling 

 Conifers should be lifted every year they are in the seed- 

 beds, or until they are either sold or planted out in per- 

 manent positions in the woods or pleasure-grounds. If seeds 

 are not obtainable, the next best mode of propagating Conifers 

 generally is by cuttings, which should be selected from the 

 side shoots when the sap is in full motion. They should con- 

 sist of last year's growth branchlets, say 4 to 6 inches in length, 

 with a heel of the old wood, which causes them to root better. 

 Retinospora, Taxus, Thujas, Thujopsis, Wellingtonia, Cedrus, 

 Cephalotaxus, Cryptomeria, Dacrydium, Podocarpus, Cypress, 

 Libocedrus, Torreya, and many other well-known Conifers, 

 are readily multiplied by cuttings like those already described. 

 The usual practice is to insert the cuttings or slips in pots, 

 pans, or boxes of light sandy compost, and place them in a 

 cool and shady frame at the back of a north wall or with a 

 northern aspect. The more tender species and varieties, how- 

 ever, strike quicker and with more certainty if pricked into 

 pots of small crocks having about an inch of sandy soil at the 

 top. These, if placed in a genial heat of 75 to 80, will have 

 emitted clusters of white fibrous roots in about a fortnight or 

 three weeks; but they must be carefully hardened off and 

 potted singly, after which they may be placed in a cold frame 

 and finally planted out in the ordinary way. Seed is un- 

 doubtedly the best method of propagating all Conifers when it 

 is obtainable ; and cuttings are better, as a rule, than grafted 

 specimens, as the latter often throw out lateral leaders instead 

 of terminal or erect ones, and these spoil the symmetry of the 



