TUE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
147 
greener, and begin to grovr simultaneously with the emission of 
roots from the base. Then they should have a little more air and 
light to prepare them for the life they are to lead as independent 
plants. A cheap propagating frame may be extemporized by fitting 
together two flower-pots and filling the space between them with 
moss or sand, and then fitting a bell-glass over. This plan answers 
well for hard-wooded plants, which are very slow in making roots, 
and are apt therefore to be neglected, and, perhaps, occasionally for- 
gotten. 
The multiplication of stemless plants, such as the cineraria and 
primula, is accomplished by division of the root where named 
varieties are required, but when the cultivator has no wish to keep 
a named collection, and desires only to have plenty of gay flowers, 
seeds are to be preferred. In dividing these herbaceous plants, the 
“stool” is cut through so as to divide it into as many plants as it 
has centres of growth, each portion having a few roots attached. 
The best way to learn the art is to practise on stools of chrysan- 
tliemums in spring, for they are easy to divide, and the destruction 
of a few by unskilful handling will not entail a serious loss. 
A considerable number of useful plants may be propagated from 
leaves, and the practice is of great value when it is desired to obtain 
stock of an expensive variety. In the case of begonias and coleus, 
which may be increased in this way, the leaves are merely laid on a 
surface of moist sand, and kept in their places with little wooden 
pegs. Sometimes the leaves are clipped partly across by a pair of 
scissors to hasten the production of roots and buds. In the case of 
several succulents, such as echeverias, the leaves are removed so as 
to leave a clean scar on the stem, and are fixed with their bases on 
or in a surface of sand by driving a little peg through them. The 
time to remove the leaves for the purpose is when they are “ ripe,” 
that is full grown, quite mature, but not yet showing signs of decay. 
Cultivation consists in providing at every stage of the life of a 
plant conditions favourable to increase of the individuals or full 
development in any form desired (and possible) of individual speci- 
mens. The treatment to which the principal groups or classes of 
plants are to be subjected for the attainment of these ends will be 
described in the papers to follow, but a few important gene- 
ralities may be usefully disposed of now. In any and every case it 
is well to wait until a plant has filled with its roots the pot it 
occupies, before shifting it into one of a larger size. In any and 
every case it is well to “ stop,” that is, pinch the points of the 
shoots, or prune with the knife, some little time before the shift is 
made, and to give the shift when the new shoots that the stopping 
process has caused the plant to produce have grown about half an 
inch or so. In other words, never stop anH shift at the same time. 
A “large shift” means transferring the plant to a pot two or three 
sizes larger than the one it occupied before the shift. This practice 
is followed with advantage in the case of fast-growing and free- 
rooting plants of soft texture, such as the hydrangea, for example. 
A “small shift” means transferring to a pot only one size larger, and 
is the only safe practice with slow-growing plants of hard texture, 
May. 
