xiv PLANT PROPAGATION 
to possess a knowledge of the requirements of the 
different genera and species. All this adds zest to the 
enterprise, and satisfaction when the desired results are 
achieved. 
Propagation is not only used as a means of increasing 
the number of plants for special purposes, but also as an 
aid to the production of pleasing or useful variation, as 
well as to render some more luxuriant, or it may be 
more restricted, in growth, or, what is considered still 
more important in regard to fruit and flowers, to create 
a higher degree of fruitfulness or a greater tendency to — 
flower production instead of a too rampant growth of 
wood and foliage. 
Of late years special efforts have been made by means 
of hybridisation and propagation combined, in connec- 
tion with that most wonderful and curious family the 
Orchidee@, to increase their vigour, curious forms, and 
wonderful variations of choice and unusual colourings in 
the blossoms, and, what is more, have been attended 
with phenomenal success. So great an effect has this 
produced from a commercial point of view that the 
collecting of new species and natural hybrids from their 
native habitats has been no longer necessary to anything 
like the extent it was previously. Hybridisation and the 
raising from seed—which is propagation—has opened a 
new field of discovery, and the results have exceeded all 
anticipations. 
It will be the aim of this little treatise to explain as 
clearly as possible some of the more important methods 
by which plants are propagated. The matter presented 
will be the outcome of practical experience, observation, 
and collected information extending over a long and 
varied horticultural career, and it will be given in such 
