476 
pliky's natural histoet. 
[Book XYII. 
sive length to which it grows, bends downwards, and throws 
the extremities of its branches into the earth; these imme- 
diately take root again, and would fill every place far and 
wide, were it not that the arts of cultivation put a check to 
it ; so much so, indeed, that it would almost appear that men 
are born for nothing else but to take care of the earth. Hence 
it is, that a thing that is in itself most noxious and most 
baneful, has taught us the art of reproduction by layers and 
quicksets. The ivy, too, has a similar property. 
Cato ^ says, that in addition to the vine, the fig, as well as 
the olive, the pomegranate, every variety of the apple, the 
laurel, the plum, the myrtle, the filbert, the nut of Praeneste, 
and the plane, are capable of being propagated by layers. 
Layers^ are of two kinds ; in the one, a branch, while still 
adhering to the tree, is pressed downwards into a hole that 
measures four feet every way ; at the end of two years it is 
cut at the part where it curves, and is then transplanted at 
the expiration of three years more. If it is intended to carry 
the plant to any distance, it is the best plan to place the layer, 
directly it is taken up, either in an osier basket or any earthen 
vessel, for its better security when carried. The other ^ mode 
of reproduction by layers is a more costly one, and is effected 
by summoning forth a root from the trunk of the tree even. 
Eor this purpose, earthen vessels or baskets are provided, and 
are then well packed with earth ; through these the extre- 
mities of the branches are passed, and by this mode of encou- 
ragement a root is obtained growing amid the fruit itself, and 
at the very summit of the tree ; for it is at the summit that 
this method is generally adopted. In this way has a bold and 
daring inventiveness produced a new tree aloft and far away 
from the ground. At the end of two years, in the manner 
already stated, the layer is cut asunder, and then planted in 
the ground, basket and all. 
The herb savin^ is reproduced by layers, as also by slips ; it 
1 De Ee Eust. c. 51. 
2 The French call cultivation by layers "marcotte/' as applied to trees 
in general ; and " provignage," as applicable to the vine. The two methods 
described by Pliny are still extensively practised. 
3 Taken from Cato, De Be Pust. c, 133. 
* The Juniperus sabina of Linnaeus : see B. xxiv. c. 61. It produces 
seed, and there is only one variety that is barren ; the plant being, in re- 
ality, dioeceous. 
