LAYERING 173 



are not long enough or flexible enough or (a prime 

 essential) near enough to the ground to be bent down 

 and laid in the trench dug for receiving the layer. 

 How is this difficulty to be overcome? The way is 

 very simple. We have already observed the effect 

 of cutting back ; we know that a stem cut back, that 

 is to say cut off close to the ground, develops around 

 the border of its wound numerous adventitious buds 

 which grow into so many shoots. They are precisely 

 the sort of shoots we need, long, flexible, and starting 

 from the level of the ground. Each of them, if 

 treated as a layer, partly buried in a trench where 

 it is fixed with a crotch, and held, above ground, in a 

 vertical position by means of a prop, takes root 

 sooner or later according to its species, and can then 

 be transferred as an independent plant to any de- 

 sired spot. Such is the simple method known both 

 as layering and as arching, because it is essentially 

 the same as ordinary layering and at the same time 

 necessitates the bending of the young shoot so as to 

 describe an arch. 



"The following method dispenses with this bend- 

 ing, which is impracticable when the wood is too 

 brittle. In the spring the stalk or trunk that is to 

 furnish the layers is cut back. All around this cross- 

 section young shoots soon make their appearance, 

 after which it is only necessary to wait until they 

 are long enough but have not yet lost their tender- 

 ness, a state most conducive to the growth of ad- 

 ventitious buds ; then the parent trunk is earthed up, 

 or in other words light soil is heaped all about the 



