PROPAGATION OP PLANTS. 



101 



sufficiently strong, it may be increased by earthing them 

 up well with good mould, which may be kept moist by 

 mulching. The quince and other plants are propagated 

 in this manner. 



Propagation by Slips. — This is the mode in which many 

 small undershrubs, like box, sage, rue and lavender, are in- 

 creased. They are dug up in spring or fall, and the young 

 shoots, with some portion of root attached, slipped off 

 with the thumb and finger, and if small, they are planted 

 a year in nursery rows. Many kinds of plants grow from 

 slips of the young branches with little or no root attached. 

 The number of young plants to be obtained by division 

 can be increased in some cases by sprinkling fine soil 

 among them that the lower branches may strike root in 

 it, or taking up the plant and resetting deeper than before. 

 Box edging when overgrown, if taken up in spring, partly 

 divided and replanted so that the base of each shoot is 

 covered, can, after rooting, again be divided into as many 

 plants as there were shoots. Stem suckers are often called 

 slips. 



Parting the Roots is the ordinary way of increasing 

 herbaceous perennials with annual stems, such as phloxes, 

 chrysanthemums, etc., which can be taken up in spring or 

 autumn, and divided by hand, or with the trowel, knife or 

 spade, into a number of plants with a portion of root to 

 each. 



Propagation by Layers. — A layer is a branch or shoot 

 bent down into, and covered with, the soil, in order to 

 make it take root. Meanwhile it is fed by the parent 

 stock with which its communication is, however, partially 

 obstructed to make the returning sap form roots, instead 

 of going back into the stock. With some plants a suf- 

 ficient check is given by simply bending and properly 

 covering it with earth ; the branch is held in its place 

 by hooked pegs until it takes root. But in general this is 



