June^ 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



907 



centre of it, and also through the joint next to it. Thus far 

 the operation is completed. The bed or mould round the 

 plants should have been previously stirred up, and a small hill 

 of fine light rich mould raised round their base. A number of 

 small hooked pegs should be in readiness, and the layer pre- 

 pared, as already described, should be bent down and buried 

 about half an inch below the surface of the mould, in which 

 position it should be secured by placing a hooked peg, so that 

 it will hold the part of the layer deprived of leaves under the 

 mould, while the top of the shoot is made to take a perpen- 

 dicular direction, making the bend in the layer where the in- 

 cision commenced ; the mould being pressed firmly round it, 

 it is finished : the whole of the shoots, or as many as may be 

 intended to be laid, being, in like manner so treated, the 

 whole are well watered, and shaded for a few days during the 

 middle of each day. It is advisable to dress all the shoots of 

 each plant, however great the number, or often of two or 

 three plants, if thin of shoots, before they be pegged down, 

 in order that they may be partially dried before they be bent 

 down or buried in the mould. They become less brittle when 

 partially dried, and are therefore less liable to break in the 

 operation; besides, the sap having partly escaped will not, 

 after being laid in the mould, be so liable to engender damp, 

 or a disposition to decay, which sometimes is the case, when 

 the shoots laid are succulent and full of sap. Some culti- 

 vators, as a preventive, cut off the point or nib of the tongue 

 or talus, immediately below the joint, and consider that it 

 assists the protusion of that granulous matter from which the 

 fibres proceed. 



Previously to the operation of laying being performed, the 

 plants should have a good watering, particularly if dry 

 weather, as, after the fresh mould is laid round their roots 

 for the reception of the layers, neither the rain nor the water 

 from the watering-pots can so readily penetrate to the roots of 

 the plants without endangering the young layers, or displacing 

 the mould in which they are placed. 



When the young plants are properly rooted, which will 

 be the case with some sorts in three weeks, and with others 

 in four or five, provi/^ed that they have been attended to with 



