THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 101 



they always are very careful to save the later and weaker ones. 

 If they are looking for double flowers or fine colors they are surer 

 of getting them among these. Among Rhododendrons the first 

 in a batch to bloom are always the strongest growers and the 

 poorest in flower. 



The list of berried and nut seeds that may be sown in the autumn 

 or stratified is a large one. I give only a few : of tree seeds, Oaks, 

 Chestnuts, Walnuts, Beech, some Pines, Yews, Ginkgo, Aesculus, 

 Acer, Fraxinus, Crataegus, some Pyruses, some Prunuses, Lirioden- 

 dron, Sassafras, and Junipers. Yews, Junipers, and Crataegus 

 sometimes lay over three years; of shrub seeds, some Prunuses, 

 some Pyruses, Cydonia, Lonicera, Rhamnus, some Styrax, Dirca, 

 Ilex, Ligustrums, Cotoneasters, Fothergilla, Halesia, Hamamelis, 

 Symphoricarpos, and some Roses if the seeds have become dry. 



The seed method is applied to Palms and it is the only practical 

 way to propagate them. It is a special industry and very few 

 gardeners raise the Palms they use. 



I found Rhododendrons growing wild in mossy places on the 

 Hunnewell Estate at Wellesley and that was a clue to conditions 

 under which I could expect to succeed in germinating them. I 

 naturally thought to simulate these conditions in a cool green- 

 house, using moss as a germinating medium. They did not do 

 so well in a cool greenhouse and I later found a warm house better 

 for the germinating periodt I now raise and transplant Rhodo- 

 dendrons, Azaleas, Heather, Cornish Heaths, Corsican Heaths, 

 Irish Heaths, and their allies in the same house with seedling 

 Orchids. 



I use seed boxes, 12 + 16+2, and fill them nearly full with 

 coarsely sifted peat with a little sand mixed in. It is then pressed 

 firmly and about one-sixteenth of an inch of sphagnum moss is 

 sifted on. The boxes are then wet and the seeds scattered without 

 covering. 



I have lately extended this plan of seed sowing to all fine seed 

 with excellent results. x\ll gardeners know what "mifty" things 

 Calceolarias are to handle, but sown on sphagnum moss they 

 give no trouble. 



The soil is kept quite mbist until the seedlings are up, four to 

 six weeks, and then fairly moist. When large enough to handl 



