268 



Garden and Forest. 



[June;s, 1889. 



The sand should be well watered and made as Krm as pos- 

 sible with a mallet or brick. Where cuttings are put in 

 firmly they do much the best. They should be selected from 

 young shoots of half-grown wood, if possible, and of medium 

 size, all over-grown suckers being avoided. Cuttings with 

 two to three eyes, certainly not more than four, will be 

 long enough in the case of most plants, althougii much 

 larger cuttings can be used. Remove the lower leaves, and 

 cut off smooth below an eye, being careful to have a well- 

 sharpened knife. If the upper leaves of the cuttings are 

 large, it is well to shorten them somewhat, to lessen the sur- 

 face exposed to the air and to help prevent wilting. Soft- 

 wood cuttings of trees or shrubs should on no account be 

 allowed to wilt. Except in rainy weather, I invariably keep a 

 can of water with me, and the cuttings as fast as they are col- 

 lected are sprinkled and put into a close-covered box until 

 I get to the potting-shed. When cuttings are collected at a 

 distance, I dip each lot, as soon as cut, in water, and wrap 

 them immediately in damp papers, keeping them away from 

 the air as much as possible. On reaching home they are at 

 once spread on the damp floor, sprinkled, cut in lengths and, 

 as soon as possible, put in the bed, where they should barely 

 touch each other, especially in summer, for when they are 

 crowded they are more liable to attacks of fungus, the growth 

 of which is very rapid, often going through large beds in a 

 single night. AH care should, therefore, be taken to diminish 

 the danger from it. 



As soon as the cuttings are put in they should be well 

 watered, to settle the sand firmly around them. The roof of 

 the house should be shaded with a slight coat of whitewash. 

 For the first week or ten days extra shading should be given 

 inside over the cuttings with strips of light cotton cloth or pa- 

 per, hung like a curtain, so that it may be easily drawn or 

 rolled up when not in use. The cuttings will usually need 

 shading ifrom nine in the morning until three o'clock in the 

 afternoon, or even later, according to the weather and the con- 

 struction of the house. If very hot weather prevails a light 

 syringing should be given twice or three times a day, and the 

 floors or paths of the green-house should be dampened morn- 

 ing, noon and night. The temperature of the house should 

 be kept as even as possible by closing early or late, according 

 to the weather. When cloudy all the shade should be re- 

 moved, if possible, and the syringing discontinued unless the 

 cuttings show signs of wilting, when they may have a slight 

 sprinkling. After the first week or ten days the extra shading 

 should be slowly dispensed with. Most of the cuttings will be 

 well rooted at the end of a month, when they should be at 

 once transferred to boxes or pots of light, rich, sandy earth, 

 planted firmly, and for a few days should be shaded and 

 syringed just as they were on the cutting bench. At the end 

 of a week they will be somewhat established, when they may 

 be treated as ordinary plants, in a green-house or frame, 

 during the first season until the new growth is well ripened. 

 The pots or boxes should be well protected from extreme 

 weather, either in frames or deep pits; otherwise many of the 

 plants will not endure the first winter. It is also well to re- 

 member that the soil in boxes or pots, stowed away for winter 

 in pits, should never be sodden or wet. In the spring the 

 plants should be shaken out of the pots or boxes and trans- 

 planted into well prepared nursery-beds, kept well cultivated, 

 and at the end of season most of them will be fine, healthy 

 plants. I prefer the boxes to pots, as the plants make better 

 roots, are more easily handled, and pack away better in pit or 

 frame. The boxes I use are made by cutting an ordinary 

 soap box into four, using cheap half-inch spruce for the extra 

 bottoms. The boxes usually last two seasons if housed as soon 

 as they are out of use. 



The species of plants that I have found readily propagated 

 in this way are Berberis Thimbergii, B. vulgaris and its varie- 

 ties, many of the Clemafises, Deutzias, Akebias, Ampelopsis, 

 Baccharis, Bignonias, Callicarpa, Cormts sanguinea, C. sioloni- 

 fera, and other Cornels, Cottoneasters, Eleagniis longipes, 

 Euonymus, Forsythias, Helianthemums, Itea, Kerrias, Ligus- 

 trums, Loniceras, Philadelphus, Primus Japonica and some 

 others, Rubus, Ginkgo, Sambucus, Symphoricarpus, Hydran- 

 gea, Syringa, Schizophragma, Decumaria, Ribes Gordoni, Sty- 

 rax, Diervillas, Rhodotypos, Vinca, Pterostyrax. 



Some Viburnums like V. cassinoides, V. Opulus, V. plica- 

 turn, V. dentation and V. Sieboldii root readily from soft-wood 

 cuttings; others are best propagated by layering or graffing. 

 Some species of Roses, such as R. multiflora, R. repens and 

 R. setigera, root quite easily, while others, like 7?. rubiginosa 

 and R. rubrifoUa, refuse to root at all. 



Exochordas, Clethras, Andromedas, Hollys, Osmanthus, Stu- 

 artias, and other slow-roofing plants do much better under a 



bell-glass or double-light frame. Where only small quantities 

 of plants are needed, five or six inch pots, well drained, all the 

 other conditions being the same, can be used in a frame 

 with an easterly exposure instead of the propagating bench. 

 Whatever methods are used, the greatest watchfulness and 

 care must be exercised at all times, or the result will be 

 failure, however well the mechanical part of the work is 

 done. 



One of the easiest methods of increasing woody plants dur- 

 ing the summer is by layering. This for places where lai-ge 

 quantities of plants are not wanted, is the surest way, 

 and requires the least care, after the operation is once 

 completed; and many plants difficult to propagate by cutting 

 are sure in time to root from layers. At one time, in fact, 

 few nurseries of any size were without a place set apart as 

 a stool-ground, so-called, and many nurseries at home, as well 

 as abroad, use this method for increasing many plants to-day. 

 In forming a stool-ground, select a good piece of good, light 

 loam, well enriched with rotted manure. Trench it well and set 

 out the plants from three to six feet apart, according to their 

 habit of growth. This gives plenty of room to work all around 

 the plants after they have been thoroughly established. After 

 reinoving the soil to the depth of froni four to six inches, 

 gently draw down the branches to be layered, fixing them 

 in place by hooked pegs, and, with a sharp knife, after remov- 

 ing the surplus leaves, cut half way through the stem, just 

 below an eye, then drawing the knife towards you, cut the 

 branch lengthwise from one to two inches, according to its 

 size. Cutting the stem of the layer on the under side, as is the 

 usual way, is often followed by the breaking of the layer, 

 if it is at all brittle. This is prevented by making the cut on 

 the upper side and moving the tongue slightly to one side. 

 After being pegged down the layer should be covered with 

 from four to six inches of loam. In many plants it is not 

 necessary to tongue the layer, a slight twist being sufficient. 

 With others it is only necessary to bury the stem, while others 

 again root if the branch is only held in contact with the surface 

 of moist earth. The only attention demanded by layers is 

 plenty of water during the dry season and keeping the ground 

 clean. A special ground set apart for this work is not neces- 

 sary. Any plant can be layered if a trench is dug around it 

 and filled with good loam, into which the tongued or twisted 

 branch is held. While many layered plants will root in a few 

 weeks, others will take a year, and some two and even three. 

 Some will need to be recut or ringed to make them root. 

 After layers are rooted they should be severed from the branch, 

 pruned and transplanted to the nursery, in the same way as 

 other plants. Almost every hard-wood plant known can be 

 rooted from a layer if the proper time is allowed. 



Arnold Arboretum. Jackson DaWSOH. 



The Bush Honeysuckles. 



"^X rE have many species and varieties of the Bush Honey- 

 * *^ suckles on the college grounds, most of which have 

 proved as hardy in wood and perfect in leaf as the best of our 

 native trees and shrubs of the west during our recent trying 

 years. As a full list of those now in flower would have but 

 little general interest, I will only name three or four typical 

 forms that will prove valuable over large areas of the country 

 for lawn planting and for ornamental hedges and screens. 



Lo7iicera Xylosteum. — Our form of this variable species we 

 found at Proskau, in north Silesia, where it is used for orna- 

 mental hedges and as a bee-plant. Its fine foliage, profuse 

 creamy-white flowers, handsome fruit and spreading pendant 

 habit, also fit it for single plantmg upon the lawn. In every 

 respect it is an improvement on our common Tartarian 

 Honeysuckle. While our other variefies and -species are 

 rarely visited by the bees, L. Xylosteum is swarming with them 

 while in flower. 



Lonicera alpigena. — Our form of the alpine Honeysuckle 

 is also from north Silesia. Its foliage is large and handsome, 

 and its thick-branched, drooping habit fits it peculiarly for 

 hedge-row or for single lawn specimens. Its flowers are 

 white, followed by red berries as large as small cherries. 



Lonicera splendens. — This is listed as a variety of L. Tartar- 

 ica, but it belongs to a very distinct type from east Europe or 

 central Asia. Some of the best named varieties we have, such 

 as Elegans, Gracilis, Rubra granditlora, Speciosa and Virgin- 

 alis grandifiora, evidently belong to this soft-foliaged type 

 with red or yellow berries. We have also been very success- 

 ful in growing seedlings from this strain. Out of every one 

 hundred seedlings, now eight years old, from seed sent us by 

 Professor Sargent, not one can be found that is not superior 

 in foliage, habit, flower and berries to the old Tartarian form, 

 and some of them have lai-ger flowers and the bushes assume 



