TiS. PLANT PROPAGATION 
long, in small pots of sandy compost, plunged in gentle 
bottom heat in a close, warm frame, soon strike root 
and are ready for gradually hardening off. In a few 
days after the first crop of cuttings have been taken, 
other shoots will spring up from the old crowns ready 
for similar treatment. 
Division 6f the roots is usually done when preparing 
to plant out, allowing at least one young shoot to each 
division, as the tubers do not produce adventitious buds 
anywhere except at the crowns. 
If seed is sown in February or early in March in gentle 
heat, and the plants are grown on singly in pots ready 
for planting out at the end of May, they will bloom the 
same season, but a little later than those grown from 
cuttings. The single-flowered varieties do very well in 
this way and produce good tubers for the next season. 
Grafting is done by cutting a triangular notch out of 
the upper end of a fleshy tuber. A young growing 
shoot with two or three joints is selected for the scion 
and cut through just below a joint; then two slices are 
smartly cut away to shape it to fit into the incision 
made in the tuber as neatly as possible (see p. 60). 
After binding securely but not too tightly, it is potted, 
so as just to cover the place of union, and kept in a 
close case with bottom heat until united. This plan is 
occasionally adopted to strengthen the growth of new or 
weak sorts, or to reduce the height of tall, vigorous 
ones by uniting them to roots of dwarfer growers. 
Dapune.—The hardy kinds of these desirable shrubs 
are increased by stratified seed, by cuttings of firm 
shoots in autumn kept in a cold frame until callused, 
then placed in gentle heat to assist root production, also 
by layers put down in autumn. The sweet-scented 
