NURSERY AND PLANTING. 



137 



of extremely interesting habits, and if naturalized into our 

 pleasure-grounds, would materially alter their characters in a 

 pictorial point of view. The majority of these are to be pro- 

 pagated from seeds imported from their native countries, 

 when they do not ripen with us; and when such cannot be 

 obtained, recourse must be had to the usual modes of propa- 

 gation, namely, by layers and cuttings, and probably some 

 species might be increased by grafting or inarching. Seeds 

 are the natural mode of propagation, and always succeed best, 

 and make by far the finest trees. But seeds of many of the 

 rarer species are difficult to be procured, and some lose their 

 vegetative property before they can reach this country. 



Several species of this genus will strike roots by cuttings, 

 but they seldom form a leading shoot to give them the charac- 

 ter of a future tree. Such is the case with Pinus lanciolata, 

 now Cunninghamia lanclolata, which may be said to root by 

 cuttings freely, not one in ten of such plants, if left to them- 

 selves, will ever form a proper leader. It has been suggested, 

 and indeed almost proved, that plants so originated when cut 

 down to the collar, or to that part which may be said to divide 

 the root from the stem will shoot out proper shoots from which 

 a leader may be selected, and which will form a future tree. 

 The celebrated Araucaria excelsa, when propagated from a 

 cutting, the only method of increasing it in this country, con- 

 tinues little other than a branch, but is said to be completely 

 altered in its character by a similaf process. It has also 

 been suggested, that if those plants which have been increased 

 in this manner be laid down at their whole length, and their 

 principal stem bent so as that several parts of it will protrude 

 through the surfoce, that upright shoots will be sent up from 

 such parts that will form proper leaders ; when such is the 

 case, and when the parts under ground have emitted sufficient 

 roots, they should be separated by cutting the original leading 

 branch into pieces, each of which will form a future tree. So 

 desirable a tree as this, and one that, if once acclimated to 

 our sheltered lawns, would be so very ornamental, deserves all 

 our care in order to propagate it, and likewise to protect it 

 should it once be increased. One of this genus, A. imbricala, 



