126 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



port to the plains, a journey in the Alps affords then a double 

 advantage. 



The month of September is also the proper season to under- 

 take the propagation of Alpines by division of the tufts, though 

 this may be done also in the spring. A large proportion of 

 Alpine plants can be increased in this way, but they will not all 

 bear the operation. The kinds which grow in carpet fashion, 

 forming mossy tufts, are especially suited for division. The 

 Saxifrages of the sections Isomeria (S. aconitifolia), Mis- 

 copetalum (S. rotundifolia, &c), Hirculus, Diptera (S. sar- 

 mcntosa, &c), Dactyloides (S. ccespitosa, &c), Trachyphyllum 

 (S. Aizoides, &c), Euaizoonia (S. Aizoon, &c), and Eobertsonia 

 (S. meifolia, &c), are particularly well suited for this method 

 of propagation. The Saxifrages of the sections Nephrophyllum 

 (S. cernua, &c), Boraphylla (stellar is, &c), Prophyrion (oi^positi- 

 folia, &c), do not root well, and the section Kabschia (S. ccesia, 

 squamosa, &c.) will not bear division at all. All the Sedums, 

 Sempervivums, many Silenes, Pinks, the Composite, some Cam- 

 panulas, the dwarf and creeping Phloxes, and a certain number 

 of Primroses seem rather to require division in cultivation than 

 to object to it, and many other species, especially those which 

 belong to the pastures and grassy slopes, are the same. But it 

 is not so with the European Androsaces, the Dianthus of the 

 group sylvestris, the Silenes of the group acaulis, the Gentians, 

 and, generally speaking, the Ranunculaceae, the Leguminosa?, 

 Papaver alpinum, pyrenaicitm, &c, the Phyteuma, and many 

 other tufted and dwarf but not creeping plants. 



Certain species, such as creeping Willows, Rosa, Clematis, 

 Daphne, Androsace lanuginosa and foliosa, Silene pumilio and 

 Elisabethce, Dianthus alpinus, many Campanulace®, Erodium 

 jpetrmun, &c, can be increased by cuttings ; it need hardly be 

 said that they should have a cold treatment in a close frame. I 

 was a long time endeavouring to find out a way of increasing 

 kinds of Erodium which are sterile in our country, such as 

 E. Sibthorpianum, chrysanihum, and olympicum ; but two years 

 ago, seeing my gardener making his Geranium cuttings in August, 

 it occurred to me that possibly the same plan might do with 

 these Erodiums. And so it proved, and I now get all my Erodiums 

 from cuttings made of the rhizome in August, and I never 

 lose one. 



