CUTTINGS 67 



readily propagated from cuttings, whilst all the species and 

 crosses of the Javanicum race are multiplied in this way. 



Azalea stocks are raised from the soft lateral shoots 

 which develop from the grafted stocks in winter. They 

 are inserted in shallow boxes of sandy soil, placed in shallow 

 frames, heated to a temperature of from 65 to 70 F., 

 and kept moist to saturation point ; they root in about 

 four weeks, and are then transplanted into beds or potted 

 singly into thumb pots, and grown in a moist house or 

 frame until the following spring, when they are beheaded 

 and grafted. 



Belgian growers have perfected this method of raising 

 Azaleas by the thousand, so that scarcely one per cent, of 

 cuttings or grafts fail. They have low houses, such as we 

 call pits, with propagating frames on both sides, the frames 

 being flat, large squares of glass serving as a covering, and 

 the cuttings on the one side, grafted plants on the other, 

 are all placed as thick as they will stand, their tops almost 

 touching the glass. 



In France, bell glasses, placed on shaded borders of light 

 sandy soil in the open air, are used for raising Azalea stocks 

 from cuttings, in much the same way as we raise hardy 

 Heaths. The principle is the same, whether frames in a 

 house or cloches outside are used, the cuttings being kept 

 uniformly moist and the air about them fresh. 



The Javanese Rhododendrons are, as has been said, 

 invariably multiplied by cuttings formed of half-ripened 

 shoots and placed in frames in sandy peat soil, where they 

 are kept at a temperature of about 60. They root freely 

 when thus treated, the thousands of plants which have 

 been raised in the nurseries of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons 

 having all been raised in this way. Azalea Hexe, a cross 



