146 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



THE PIlSrE-APPLE. 



By William Coleman. 



PROPAGATION OF THE PINE. 



T HE propagation of the Pine is easily effected 

 by means of suckers, crowns, gills, seeds, and 

 dormant buds. 



Suckers. — With the exception of very shy kinds, 

 which do not produce suckers freely, there is no 

 diflBculty in keeping up a good stock by leaving one 

 or two promising suckers near the base of each plant 

 at the time it throws up its fruit. It is not necessary 

 to take off the suckers before the old stool is removed 

 from the fruiting-pit, as they make very rapid growth 

 during the time they are feeding on the parent 

 plants ; neither is it advisable to detach or pot them 

 during the winter months. Modern Pine-growers, 

 who produce such astonishing results in the course 

 of a few months, generally leave the suckers on the 

 stools, which are shaken out, and re-potted in small 

 pots, till they become very large and ripe at the base, 

 with an abundance of embryo roots, ready to take 

 to the soil as soon as they are potted into eight-inch 

 pots. Their age dates from the time they are potted. 

 Those from winter fruiters should be potted in March, 

 or any time during the summer, and those from 

 summer fruiters not later than September : after this 

 month, detachment should be deferred until spring. 

 If well managed in a bottom heat of 90°, they are 

 fit for the first and last shift into the fruiting- - pots 

 in February. They are again grown on rapidly, 

 until the pots are full of roots, when they are slightly 

 checked, but not starved, and they are ready for 

 starting by the time they are eighteen months old. 

 In the preparation of the suckers, all that is neces- 

 sary is to remove a few of the small leaves from the 

 base and to cut the end smooth with a sharp knife ; 

 they are then ready for potting. The pots should be 

 clean, well crocked and dry, and from five to eight 

 inches in diameter. The soil should be rich, firm, 

 fibrous, and free from animal manure, as it will form 

 the nucleus of the futui^e ball of the plant, and on 

 this account nothing likely to become pasty should 

 be used. 



Crowns. — Young plants of very scarce or shy 

 kinds, such as the smooth-leaved Cayenne, which 

 never throws up many suckers, are frequently pro- 

 pagated from crowns ; but Pine-growers do not 

 generally care for them, as it takes a much longer 

 time to grow them into fruiting plants, and the 

 prevailing impression is that they do not start so 

 freely or produce such heavy Pines as sucker plants. 

 Formerly it was the custom to strip off a few of the 

 lower leaves, pare the fleshy part off the base, and 



lay them aside to dry before they were potted ; but it 

 is better to pot them at once, in very small pots 

 filled with dry fibrous soil, and plunge them in a 

 strong heat, where the moisture fi-om the fermenting- 

 bed will keep them fresh until the roots are formed, 

 when they may be sparingly watered. 



Gills. — These are oft'-sets resembhng miniature 

 suckers, produced at the base of the fruit ; but being- 

 very small, it requires a great deal of time to grow 

 them up to the size of ordinary suckers. They are 

 therefore seldom if ever used w^hen good suckers can 

 be obtained. The best mode of propagation is the 

 insertion of a number of them round the inside of 

 the rim of a six-inch pot, and to pot them singly 

 when they are well rooted. 



Seeds. — Those who are interested in the raising 

 of new varieties, and have the command of a good 

 stock of patience, can indulge in the interesting art 

 of cross-fertilisation by impregnating the flowers of 

 one kind with pollen obtained from another. The 

 pollen can be conveyed with a camel's-hair pencil 

 w^hen the atmosphere of the house is dry, and the 

 two plants selected are equally advanced. When 

 ripe, the seeds should be taken out of the pips, and 

 sown at once in light sandy soil placed in shallow 

 pans and previously warmed by being plunged in 

 the bed over a temperatui^e of 90*^ to 100°. If 

 covered to the depth of a quarter of an inch with 

 soil, and a bell-glass is placed over the pans, frequent 

 watering may be dispensed with, and the seeds will 

 germinate with more certainty than when these 

 precautions are neglected. When fit for handling, 

 the young plants must be potted off in light peaty 

 soil, and replaced in the closest part of the propa- 

 gating pit, where they can have a good bottom heat 

 and be kept close to the glass. As growth proceeds, 

 they will require constant shifts into larger pots, 

 until they have attained sufficient size to be placed 

 under the ordinary treatment w^hich will be recom- 

 mended in the chapter on Cultivation. As aH 

 hybridists are anxious to ascertain wdth as little 

 delay as possible the result of their labour, it is 

 a. good plan to devote a small pit to the special 

 culture of seedlings, and to keep them constantly 

 growing until they arrive at the fruiting state, 

 which will not be less than three years. 



Dormant Eyes. — Choice kinds which yield few 

 suckers can be increased in the following way : — 

 When the old stools have produced the suckers which 

 started with or before the fruit, strip off all the old 

 leaves and lay them side by side, in shallow boxes 

 some six inches in depth, to admit of two inches of 

 drainage and four inches of soil. Fill in and cover 



