66 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



tion. There does not appear to be any satisfactory reason 

 why Rhododendrons generally should not be as readily 

 propagated in this way as other Ericaceae are. Erica itself 

 is difficult, in the case of the hard-wooded Cape species at 

 any rate, but cuttings were, and still are, the only means of 

 increasing them in this country, where seeds very rarely 

 ripen. Arbutus, Pernettya, Gaultheria, Andromeda, Kalmia, 

 and Clethra, all shrubby members of this order, are propa- 

 gated by means of cuttings. In a paper on hardy Rhodo- 

 dendrons by Mr. Rudolf Seidel, Dresden, published in 1902, 

 it is stated that in his nursery large numbers of Rhododen- 

 drons of the caucasicum type, including Cunningham's 

 White, are propagated by cuttings. They are put in in 

 November or December, the soil used being chiefly sand in 

 a frame kept moist and warm by a hot-water bed. By 

 March they are well rooted, when they are potted and 

 hardened off before being planted out in beds in the open. 



It is more than likely that the majority of, if not all, 

 Rhododendrons are capable of being multiplied from 

 cuttings, and that when once rooted they would thrive at 

 least as well as when grafted. This is true of most Roses 

 and fruit, which nevertheless are invariably multiplied by 

 grafting. There is no physiological difference between the 

 several forms of Indian Azaleas that are propagated from 

 cuttings to be used as stocks, and the varieties that are 

 grafted upon them. Nor can there be any difference, so 

 far as the capacity to strike root is concerned, between a 

 hybrid Rhododendron and a species. Still, Rhododen- 

 drons generally are not propagated from cuttings. 



When R. racemosum was introduced from China it was 

 propagated from cuttings, hundreds of plants being thus 

 raised at Kew. The North American Azaleas also are 



