CONIFERS FROM CUTTINGS. 51 



on pieces of their own roots, or those of closely allied 

 species, and in the same manner as other trees are root- 

 grafted, and during the winter months. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 CONIFERS FROM CUTTINGS. 



There are many species and varieties of the coniferaa 

 that are readily propagated by cuttings. It is practised 

 extensively with species of which seed cannot be obtained, 

 also with varieties upon whose seed little dependence 

 could be placed, of producing from them plants like the 

 parent tree. Varieties of evergreens are no more likely 

 to come true from seed than varieties of the pear or 

 apple; consequently more direct methods of propagation 

 must be adopted. The arbor-vitaes, junipers, yews, tor- 

 reya, cephalotoxus, podocarpus, cryptomerias, and species 

 belonging to several other genera, are quite readily prop- 

 agated by either cuttings of ripe or green wood. Some 

 will grow quite readily without artificial heat, especially 

 in the Middle and Southern States, but success is more 

 certain if all are placed where the temperature can at all 

 times be under the perfect control of the propagator. 

 In warm climates, a mere frame covered with glazed 

 sash, or thin cloth, may answer, but in cold ones it is 

 better to have some means of giving the cuttings a little 

 extra heat during the winter months. An ordinary cool 

 green-house is perhaps, all things considered, the best 

 kind of structure in which to propagate evergreens from 

 cuttings, especially in cold climates. Cuttings are made 

 of the ends of the smaller branches, and mainly of the 

 ripe one-year-old wood, but with some kinds a little of 

 the two-year-old may be taken at the base of the cutting. 



