PROPAGATION. 



G3 



must be planted very firmly, a good watering then 

 given to them, and, after' the water has drained 

 from the foliage of the cuttings, the boxes may be 

 placed over them and pressed down a little into the 

 soil. Under the most favourable conditions as re- 

 gards light, warmth, and rain during the winter, it 

 will be found unnecessary to remove the boxes till 

 the cuttings are rooted and ready to be hardened 

 off. By this means we have seen thousands of 

 Conifers and other hardy trees and shrubs propa- 

 gated, without the loss of more than five or ten per 

 cent. In dry, sunny weather, it may be advisable to 

 remove the boxes in order to w-ater the soil. Even 

 this may be obviated by watering the soil outside 

 the boxes, which, being very sandy and porous, allows 

 the water to permeate through the whole body of soil, 

 including that in which the cuttings are placed. By 

 the spring these cuttings will have formed roots, and 

 therefore all the further attention they will require 

 previous to being transplanted into pots, beds, or 

 borders, will be a gradual hardening off, till finally 

 the boxes may be removed altogether. 



For choicer and less free-rooting kinds, pots are 

 preferable to the open border, and a brick frame or 

 pit of shallow depth affords the most suitable place 

 for them. Eight, ten, or twelve-inch pots may bo 

 used, these to be filled with drainage to within about 

 three inches of the top, which space should be filled 

 up by a light sandy soil, half peat, half loam, and 

 pressed in firmly. The cuttings ought not to be put 

 too thick into the pots, say for thickness the leaves 

 just touching each other. After watering, the pots 

 of cuttings may be placed in the frame, which should 

 have a cinder bottom, or better still, a few inches of 

 cocoa-nut fibre or tan in which the pots can be par- 

 tially buried. Shade the cuttings from bright sun- 

 light ; give air on all mild days and nights also ; in 

 fact, on mild warm nights, the lights may be removed 

 altogether, as it is found of benefit to the cuttings to 

 allow the dews to fall upon them. Here the cuttings 

 may be allowed to remain, till by signs of new 

 growth it is seen that they are rooted ; or to hasten 

 the formation of roots, a hot-bed of dung or tan, or a 

 slightly heated bed in a propagating-house, may be 

 used for the reception of the cuttings after they 

 have callused, or say about six weeks after they 

 were first put in. The extra heat causes the cuttings 

 to strike very readily. Care must be taken not to 

 place the cuttings in a high temperature, or they will 

 be forced into growth before roots have been formed, 

 the effect of which is the using up of the vitality in 

 the cutting, which, under more favourable condi- 

 tions, would have gone to the formation of roots. A 

 bottom heat of 55° to 60°, with 5 C less about the 

 tops, will be found quite high enough for callused 

 cuttings of Coniferous plants. 



In the case of many of these plants, the cuttings 

 being hard and often wiry in texture, and also vary- 

 ing somewhat in health, age, &c. , they do not strike 

 root simultaneously. It will therefore be necessary 

 to remove the rooted cuttings from the pots, re- 

 placing those which are without roots. "We have 

 known cuttings to remain callused and healthy for 

 several months without forming roots, although 

 others put into the same pots with them at the be- 

 ginning had long since struck and been removed. 



Cuttings of Conifers vary in size according as the 

 plants are strong or weak, or stout or slender growl- 

 ing. It is therefore difficult to state the exact size 

 to which every cutting should conform. It may be 

 stated, however, that the basal wood of the cuttings 

 should not be more than twelve months old, and 

 never less than a full season. Where possible, a heel 

 should be obtained with each cutting. Being hard, 

 resinous, and often of a more or less fluffy texture, 

 the wood of these plants should be cut with a very 

 sharp knife when intended to form cuttings. The 

 principal cause of failure in the propagation of coni- 

 ferous cuttings, is damp, which comes through bad 

 ventilation, too much moisture overhead, or the cut- 

 tings being too much crowded together. Cuttings of 

 several kinds of Conifcra? are shown at Fig. 15. 



The habit of growth of some coniferous trees ren- 

 ders their side-branches of no value for purposes of 

 propagation ; for, although cuttings of such parts 

 seldom fail to root, they are quite incapable of 

 forming leads, always retaining the character of a 

 branch, and with a tendency to grow in a horizontal 

 rather than upright direction. In such cases cut- 

 tings must be obtained either by taking the leads 

 of the plants, or by pinching out their points, induc- 

 ing them to push the latent buds of the main shoot 

 or lead, which, when large enough, may be removed 

 and used as cuttings. Those kinds whose branches 

 have a more or less perpendicular habit of growth 

 may be increased by means of cuttings taken from 

 any part of the plant. It is important that the cut- 

 tings should be put in fresh from the tree, as if 

 allowed to stand any length of time before they are 

 put into soil (and owing to their not showing signs 

 of suffering from the effects of exposure by flagging 

 as cuttings generally do, there is often danger of 

 neglect in this particular) it is very rarely that 

 they do any good. Where the cuttings are small, 

 it will be well if, after having rooted, they are 

 grown on in pots for the first year or so. 



1. Conifers of which cuttings must be obtained 

 from leading growths, lateral shoots being worth- 

 less : — 



*Abies (including Picea)— *Cedrus— Cedar. 



Firs, Spruce, Hemlock, Larix — Larch. 



and Silver. Pinus — Pine(usuallygrafted 



*Araucaria — Chili Pines. or raised from seeds). 



