92 
CULTURE OF THE GENUS CITRUS. 
Pots for propagating are certainly advantageous. The benefits of using them are — 
The certainty of all the branches making 
plants. 
The layered branch grows vigorously whilst 
rooting, with the superior advantage which 
pot-layering possesses over the open ground. 
The layers, which may now be called plants , 
being already confined in the pot, will only 
require separating and repotting. 
A succession of young plants may be ob- 
tained by removing the rooted ones, and re- 
placing the propagating pot to the successional 
branches. 
Mr. Appleby’s propagator is made of the 
same material as the common garden -pot; the 
upper part is the size and form of a small 
thirty-two, but about two inches deeper, for holding sufficient water to moisten 
the earth. A loop-hole is cut through the side, about half-an-inch wide, and 
an inch and a half long, and about the same distance from the top, through 
which to admit the layer. To prevent communication between the upper part and 
the socket, a small hole is made at the base of the pot, immediately under the loop- 
hole, to let out the superfluous water ; the socket, continued from the upper part, 
is intended to admit a stake, which may be long or short, as the branch to be layered 
may require. Shoots layered in March or April will be ready to separate in 
September or October. 
A very simple method of propagation, practised by the Chinese, may be very 
useful in increasing many of our stove and conservatory plants. The system 
merely consists in selecting a fruit-bearing bough, with a good branchy head, and 
taking off from the stem a ring of bark, about an inch in length. Around this is 
placed a quantity of moss, or rich earth and moss, and tied with a coarse cloth, and 
the whole is kept moist by means of a vessel of water hung over it with a very small 
hole, or a thread, to convey the water, drop by drop, or by merely using the syringe. 
The descending pulp being stopped short in its passage downwards towards the 
root, first forms root buds, which soon send out roots in the moist earth, or moss, 
and when these are deemed strong enough 
to feed the plant, the branch is cut off a 
little below, and the tree in miniature is 
ready for planting in a pot. The process 
has been varied by having garden pots 
made so as to inclose the ring branch, 
and in this way dwarf fruit trees are often 
formed on the Continent, where they are 
much prized. 
