Geucral Remarks. 577 
The cultivation of herbaceous plants calls for more skill and 
management than that of trees and shrubs, because there is a 
greater diversity in their habits, habitats and special require- 
ments, and because they are more exposed to the vicissitudes 
of weather, and the attacks of insects and animals. And then 
the work in the flower garden proper has to be repeated year 
after year, and upon its skilful execution depends the amount 
of pleasure derived from this the most attractive part of the 
garden. Consequently we shall devote a special chapter to the 
explanation of the best methods of raising, treatment, and 
propagation of herbaceous plants, including also a few hints on 
the management of flowering and ornamental shrubs requiring 
special conditions. 
We may here say a few words on the general propagation 
or multiplication of plants. There are two distinct modes of 
raising plants, namely, sexual, from seed; and asexual, which 
includes all the different methods of grafting, budding, layering; 
offsets, division, and also propagation by cuttings, ete. The most 
important means of propagation practised by gardeners on a 
small scale are from seeds, cuttings, and root-division. These 
three methods represent the raising of annual plants, and the 
multiplication of tender bedding plants and herbaceous plants 
respectively. Grafting, budding, layering, etc., are practised 
on a limited scale only, or not at all, by the small gardener or 
amateur, and, to a certain extent, more for recreation or expe- 
riments. But advantage should be taken of these means to 
increase the stock, or propagate rare varieties, where desirable. 
Otherwise these operations on an extended scale are restricted 
to nurserymen and florists. Budding is the method generally 
employed in the propagation of Roses, and variegated, double- 
flowered, weeping and other varieties of ornamental trees and 
shrubs. Usually some common or vigorous-growing species is 
selected for the stock upon which the rarer varieties are budded. 
For the Rose stock, clean stems of the common Dog-Rose ; for 
weeping and other varieties of Ash, the common Ash; for 
various species of Cytisus and Genista, as well as improved 
varieties of Laburnum, the common Laburnum; and so on, 
always selecting a species of close affinity. 
Of late there has been a tendency on the part of horticul- 
tural writers to depreciate this and that, till there is almost 
nothing left for the garden. One objects to variegated plants, 
another terms weeping trees abnormal and unnatural, whilst a 
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