JO4 THE PLEASURE GARDEN. [JUNE. 



and they would sooner be fit to prick out into nur- 

 sery-beds, or be put into small pots. Observe tp 

 pick out any that die and get mouldy, as they ap- 

 pear ; and to stir the surface among them with the 

 point of a stick, whenever it gets anywise hard, or 

 encrusted. 



Of laying Carnations. 



Laying of these flowers being a more troublesome, 

 though not a more successful method of propaga- 

 tion, and being also now seldom practised, it is un- 

 necessary to point out the minutiae of performance. 

 It may be enough to say, generally, that the shoots 

 to be layered should be singled out all round the 

 plant or stool, the leaves trimmed and shortened ; 

 a little fresh earth spread on the surface ; the shoots 

 slit lengthwise, from the middle joint, up to, and 

 quite through that next above it ; then hooked 

 down with small pegs, and covered with a little of 

 the earth. Their points being inclined upwards, 

 by previously making a small hollow under each, 

 sufficiently opens the slit, immediately above which, 

 at the first joint, the new roots spring. The shoot 

 should just be covered with the earth, but not deep. 

 Give a gentle watering, which frequently repeat; 

 and in five or six weeks the layers will be fit to be 

 parted from the mother plant. They must then be 

 taken up with care, and with as good roots as pos- 

 sible ; and may either be planted into nursery- 

 beds, or into small pots. 



