200 



THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



Such dwarfs seldom increase much in size, but go on 

 bearing a few years, and then decline and die. 



The continental gardeners propagate a number of 

 rose plants on the same principle, and evidently in 

 imitation of the Chinese. They ring a shoot, and 

 instead of tying a ball of earth round it, they have 

 little tin vessels with a slit on one side, extending 

 from the brim to a hole in the lower part of the side 

 or the bottom. The shoot being prepared, the vessel 

 is stretched so as to open the slit, in which the shoot is 

 passed, till it comes to the hole where it remains, and 

 the slit closes again by its own elasticity. The hole 

 is then stopped, but not so as to entirely prevent water 

 from escaping, and the pot or can being filled with 

 the proper mould and watered, the operation is nearly 

 completed. All that is done afterwards is in some 

 cases to tie the tin case and shoot to a supporting 

 rod, and sometimes to covei' the former with moss or 

 rags. Some use earthenware vessels made in imita- 

 tion of the tin ones; others, little wooden boxes, 

 cocoa-nut shells, and we have even seen necks of 

 bottles so applied. The principal part of the culture ' 

 is not to neglect regular supplies of water. 



But these are clumsy modes, tedious, troublesome, 

 and expensive, and therefore unworthy the imitation 

 of British gardeners. 



From laying we proceed to inarching ; which may 

 be called laying into wood, instead of laying into 

 earth. It is a species of grafting, but differs from it 



