54 FLOWER-GARDENING. 



be taken from the parent plants carefully, so as to leave an eye 

 or heel at the lower or butt end. 



2. Cuttings should be made from shoots or stalks of a prior 

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

 having their joints not for apart : they may be cut so as to have 

 three or four joints in each cutting. In some species of succu- 

 lent 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 in 

 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 gTOw upon another plant, from which it extracts fluid for the 

 nourishment of its leaf-buds ; these thus fed gradually grow 

 upwards into branches, and send woody matter downwards, so 

 as to become connected with the stock grafted on. The 

 business of planting slips, cuttings, etc., of the tender kinds 

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

 performed in spring and autumn. 



MANAGEMENT OF HARDY FLOWERING SHRUBS. 



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. Provide cuttings 

 about a foot long, and insert them into the ground full one-third 

 of their length ; the rows may be about two feet apart, and the 



