2128 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



elevated. P. sylvestris, and some other species, will grow in bleak exposed 

 situations on lofty mountains ; and P. Pinaster, and others belonging to that 

 section of Pinus, will endure the sea breeze : but, in general, wherever 

 the Jbietinag are to be exposed, they require to be planted together in masses, 

 so as to shelter one another. None of the species, however, become orna- 

 mental when so planted ; because they necessarily lose their side branches, 

 on the preservation of which, either wholly or partially, from the ground 

 to the summit of the trees, their characteristic beauty almost entirely 

 depends. 



Propagation. The only mode of propagating the pine and fir tribe on a 

 large scale is by seeds ; but all the species will succeed by layers, by inarching 

 on closely allied kinds, and by herbaceous grafting ; and many, if not all, may 

 also be propagated by cuttings. That the Jbietinae might be propagated by 

 layers and cuttings was known in the time of Evelyn, and was " divulged " 

 by him, " as a considerable secret." Cook, also, mentions these modes of 

 propagating pines and firs in his Forest Trees, third edition, p, 117. ; but they 

 have never till lately been much in use. At present, in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, and in the Fulham and other nurseries, upwards of twenty 

 different species of the Jbietinae are propagated by cuttings with the most 

 perfect success; the plants, in most cases, becoming as handsome trees 

 as if they had been raised from seed. The only exceptions to this result 

 are, where the plant becomes bushy, and does not throw up a very de- 

 cided leading shoot ; but this can always be obtained by pegging the branches 

 down to the ground, and leaving the collar fully exposed; whence one 

 or more vigorous shoots will not fail to be produced, from which a leader 

 may be selected, and all the others kept pegged down for a year or two 

 longer, and afterwards cut away by degrees. We have no doubt that, by this 

 manner of treatment, a plant of the little stunted monstrosity of the spruce 

 fir, called yfbies Clanbrasilmwa, might be restored to the natural form and 

 magnitude of the species. 



By Cuttings. The species which strike by cuttings most readily are those 

 belonging to the genera Picea, ^Tbies, 2>arix, and Cedrus. The cuttings may 

 be taken from the lateral branches, when the current year's shoots are 

 beginning to ripen, and prepared like those of Cape heaths ; they should then 

 be planted in sand, and covered with a glass. This being generally done in 

 August or September, the cuttings should be kept in a frame, from which 

 frost is excluded, throughout the winter; and the greater part of them will 

 send up shoots the following May or June, and may be transplanted the suc- 

 ceeding autumn. In the London Horticultural Society's Garden, where 

 Mr. Gordon, the superintendant of the arboretum, is singularly successful 

 in this mode of propagating the pine and fir tribe, the cuttings are generally 

 taken off from the points of the lateral shoots in September ; and, being 

 planted in shallow pots of sand, they are placed in the shady part of a 

 frame, without being covered by bell-glasses, till the following spring; when 

 they are put into a very gentle moist heat, and begin growing in April. 

 The kinds which Mr. Gordon has found to strike most easily are, vTbies 

 Smithiana, A. Douglass, A. Menziesii, Pfcea Webbidna, and Cedrus JDeoddra. 

 After many trials, and a good deal of experience on the subject, Mr. T. M. 

 Lindsay, gardener to the Earl of Caernarvon, at Highclere, says : " I have found 

 the autumn the best time to put in the cuttings ; and, though the early spring 

 will answer the purpose, I have not found success so certain at that season. 

 The sort of cuttings 1 prefer are the smallest I can select, from 2 in. to 3 in. 

 long : they should be of the current year's growth, and taken off just as the 

 wood is ripened, say about the beginning or end of October. The cuttings 

 should be cut off close at the commencement of the season's growth ; or, if 

 stripped off j and then cut, so much the better. I have found silver, or pure 

 white, sand, with a small portion of peat bog or heath mould mixed with it, 

 answer the purpose better than sand alone. With respect to bottom heat, 

 I have been successful both witli and without it; and think that a little of it ? 



