212 
A FEW REMARKS ON THE PROPAGATION OF 
CUNNINGHAMIA AND ARAUCARIA. 
A few years ago, Mr. E. Murphy (one of the editors of the Irish Farmers and 
Gardener s Magazine) communicated to us a short account of a larch tree in one 
of the woods of Lady Mary Ross, at the " Falls of the Clyde," in Lanarkshire, 
which was thrown down by some accident. A portion of the roots remaining 
uninjured, and the situation being moist and shaded, the tree not only continued 
alive, but pushed up three shoots from the prostrate trunk, each of which has 
become a handsome tree, differing in no respect from plants raised from seeds. 
This specimen Mr. Murphy considered of importance, as affording a perfect 
illustration of the mode recommended by Mr. Stewart Murray, curator of the 
Glasgow botanic garden, for obtaining a tree-like stem from cuttings of Cunning ■- 
hamia lanceolata; and which he judged, from analogy, would be found equally 
applicable to the kindred genera Araucaria, Pinus, <3fc*. 
Many plants of these tribes are easily propagated by cuttings or layers ; but the 
offspring, if left to themselves, never assume any other shape than that of branches. 
We have, at Chats worth, a fine plant of Araucaria excelsa; which, although nearly 
twelve feet high, still has the appearance of a long branch, and requires to be trained 
to a stake to compel it to stand upright. Mr. Murray found that, on bending 
a branch-like plant of Cunninghamia lanceolata, and fastening it on the surface of 
the ground, a shoot was produced possessing all the characters of the original tree. 
Larioc possesses the same property ; and if, as there is every reason to believe, 
Araucaria excelsa will succeed, when treated in the same way, this fine plant may 
soon be much more common than it is at present. 
* Gard. Mag., Vol. II., p. 409. 
