LAYERS AND CUTTINGS 



The division of the rootstock is a method of propaga- 

 tion applicable to the majority of perennial plants. In 

 the case of most corms and bulbs, it is necessary, in 

 order to increase the supply, to separate the young 

 bulbels or cormels and to plant them out in a nursery 

 bed until they develope to a useful flowering size. But 

 in the division of the rootstocks of herbaceous plants a 

 certain amount of violence is usually required, and a 

 strong knife, a cold chisel and a mallet will be found 

 useful tools. Each plant, if it is to develop into a new 

 plant, must include at least one eye or bud and must 

 usually also be provided with a supply of rootlets. 



Many plants may be propagated by the process known 

 as layering, which essentially consists in pegging down 

 a shoot to the ground by means of a little crotchet stick, 

 having notched with a sharp knife half way through a 

 joint at the point where the shoot touches the soil, and 

 covering the pegged down part of the shoot with a few 

 inches of good gritty loam. In a little while, roots will 

 form at the point of section and the shoot can be 

 separated from its parent as an independent plant. The 

 Carnation is usually propagated in this way, the layering 

 being performed in July and the young plants being 

 separated a few months later. Roses may be pegged 

 down and layered in a somewhat similar way, but in 

 their case it is the middle of a branch and not its base 

 which is cut and pegged beneath the soil. 



Another method by which many plants can be in- 

 creased is that of cuttage. This is the method usually 



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