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ON THE CULTURE OF THE CHINESE AND INDIAN AZALEA. 
But to our task: — The Azaleas may be propagated in various ways: by seeds, to 
raise new varieties, and by cuttings, layers, grafting, and inarching, to perpetuate 
certain species or varieties. In propagating by cuttings, the slips may be taken off 
at any time before the plant has matured its growth ; but if the cuttings are taken 
just at the time when the young shoot is assuming a brown colour and the wood is 
about three parts ripe, the chances of success are much increased ; indeed, with 
ordinary management, rendered certain. In selecting the cuttings make choice of 
those of medium growth, and cut them about an inch-and-a.half long ; prepare pots 
in the usual way, with plenty of drainage, and a layer of peat and some sand ; insert 
the cuttings, and then cover with a bell-glass. If the cuttings, at the time they are 
put in, are in a growing state, they may be placed at once in a gentle, moist heat ; 
but if the wood is nearly ripe, it will be advisable to place the pot in a com- 
paratively low temperature until the cuttings are callosed over. 
Under favourable circumstances Azaleas will generally strike in from six weeks 
to three months, and may then be potted off into small pots, keeping them for a 
time afterwards in a moist growing temperature. 
Propagation by layers is but little practised, and, in fact, is a method requiring 
little or no skill, as, if a branch is merely bent down, covered with soil, or even 
enveloped in a little moss and kept warm and moist, it will produce root and a 
perfect plant, without further care. Although Azaleas may be propagated with great 
freedom and rapidity both by cuttings and layers; neither of these are practices much 
to be recommended, save and except to procure large quantities of the free-growing 
kinds to work, graft, or inarch the choicer varieties upon ; and for this purpose the 
strongest-growing kinds are chosen, such, for illustration, as A. indica phcenicea, 
Woodsii, Herbertii, and Double Eed ; in fact, any of those varieties which make 
strong shoots, and which, as a natural consequence, make strong roots. 
These then are the parents upon which the more tender and choice kinds are 
grafted or inarched, and the reason for grafting them is, that such varieties as A. indica 
variegata, lateritia, Gladstanesi, and their varieties, are too tender to stand or grow 
upon their own roots for any lengthened period ; for although there are some few 
examples of plants growing for a number of years on their own roots, as for 
instance the plant of A. variegata annually shown at the Chiswick Exhibitions, by 
Mr. Falconer of Cheam in Surrey, yet this may be considered the exception rather 
than the rule, as, where one plant stands for seven years upon its own bottom, we 
may very safely assert that fifty die. And hence, grafting or inarching is our only 
safeguard and dependence. 
Now, grafting and inarching may be considered analogous to striking by cuttings 
and layers, inasmuch as the graft is made to strike root upon the wood of a 
previously rooted plant in place of the soil, while the inarched branch strikes 
root on precisely the same principle, only that it is not severed from the parent 
plant until adhesion has taken place between it and the plant upon which the 
duties of the foster-parent have now devolved. Inarching may be performed any 
