262 



SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. 



[chap. 



Peru, and make them the means of beating down and destroying 

 the lesser and, perhaps, choicer ones below them. 



423. In Chapter IV. I have treated at large of propagation and 

 cultivation in general, and, as to the 'propagation and cultivation 

 of flowers, I may refer my readers to that Chapter for the general 

 knowledge, and, therefore, I shall now only notice a few par- 

 ticulars that I did not go into there. The plants that I enumerate 

 in the following list are propagated either by seed, by cuttings or 

 pipings, by parting the roots or the tubers, or by separating the 



offsets. By seed. The general instructions given in Chap. IV. 



par. 86 to 96, are sufficiently in the reader's mind, and I need say 



no more upon that. -By cuttings or pipings^ and by layers. 



The instructions for striking the carnation fully explain this. — — 

 By parting the roots. This is taking up the plant, we will sup- 

 pose of the peach-leaved campanula, and dividing it into as many 

 parts as there are complete crowns ; each of which, if divided so 

 as for it to have a piece of root left with it, and if the operation 

 be performed early in the spring, will blow the same summer ; 

 but it is ' performed generally in the autumn, and the plant is 

 quite strong by the next spring. For parting the tubers of 

 tuberous-rooted plants, see the article Auricula,*' or ^^Ranun- 

 culus.'' By separating the offsets. This is, taking off the 



two or three young bulbs that, on taking up a bulbous root, you 

 find growing at its side, its root being fixed on at the root, and its 

 body curling up round the body, of the mother l^^bulb. Break 

 these off carefully, and treat them according to the instructions 

 given for each sort under the respective name of each. As to 

 their cultivation, I have spoken so much of it in general, that I 

 will not say any more upon that subject. But there is, in this 

 division of horticulture, cultivation in pots and also in glasses. 

 Potting is a very nice operation ; it should always be done (as it 

 very frequently is not) in the most careful manner possible. In 

 the first place, the pots that you are about to use should be 

 thoroughly clean, both inside and outside ; for nothing looks 

 worse than a set of dirty flower-pots, and nothing can thrive in 

 a mass of crusted earth which is often found filling flower-pots to 

 a third part of their height, having probably been left in them 

 ever since they were last used. Having a clean pot, put in a 

 handful of broken pot-sherds, put upon this, earth enough to fill 

 the pot a little less than half full, take the plant you are going to 



