200 GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



fine soil among thein that the lower branches way strike 

 root in it, or taking up the plant and resetting deepei 

 than before. Box edging when overgrown, if taken up 

 in spring, partly divided and replanted so that the base 

 of each shoot is covered, can, after rooting, again be 

 divided into as many plants as there were shoots. Stem 

 suckers are often called slips. 



Parting the Roots is the ordinary way of increasing 

 herbaceous perennials with annual steins, such as 

 phloxes, chrysanthemums, etc., which can be taken up in 

 spring or autumn, and divided by hand, or with the 

 trowel, knife or spade, into a number of plants with a 

 portion of root to each. 



Propagation by Layers. — A layer is a branch or shoot 

 bent down into, and covered with, the soil, in order to 

 make it take root. Meanwhile it is fed by the parent 

 stock, with which its communication is, however, partially 

 obstructed to make the returning sap form roots, instead 

 of going back into the stock. With some plants a suf- 

 ficient check is given by simply bending and properly 

 covering it with earth; the branch is held in its place 

 by hooked pegs until it takes root. Rut in general this is 

 not enough. The most common way of obstructing the 

 return flow of sap is when the shoot is bent into the earth 

 to half cut it through near the bend, the free portion of 

 the wound being called a tongue. This is kept open by 

 a bit of twig, or piece of crock. Such layers are in fact 

 cuttings, only partially separated from parent-plants. 

 The incision is made through the bark at the base of a 

 bud. The object of the gardener is to induce the layer 

 to emit roots into the earth at the tongue. There are 

 other modes of effecting this. 



With this view, he twists the shoot half round, so as to 

 injure the wood vessels; he heads it back so that only a 

 bud or two appears above ground, and when much Avater- 



