PROPAGATING HARDY PLANTS 57 
have the added virtue of checking the development 
of fungus such as blackleg, grey or white mould, 
and the damping-off disease. Pans or boxes of 
choice seedling Delphiniums, Primulas and other 
particularly succulent plants may be isolated by 
standing them on inverted flower-pots which them- 
selves stand in trays or saucers filled with water. 
Slugs, etc., cannot crawl through the water to get 
at the plants. 
2. Propagating by Cuttings 
A great many of the named garden varieties of 
perennials cannot be reproduced from seed with 
an assurance that the progeny will maintain the 
distinctive features of their parents. For instance, 
if one has a named variety of Phlox, Delphinium, 
Gaillardia or Pentstemon, he may save seeds from 
it which will in all probability produce some quite 
pleasing seedlings, but a large proportion will vary 
considerably from the seed parent either in habit, 
form, or colour. To ensure the maintenance of 
the true character of such plants other methods 
of propagation must be adopted, and in the case 
of those plants that throw up a number of individual 
stems, and which have stem-joints, or ' eyes,' at 
the axils of the leaves from which new growths 
break out, the process of striking cuttings is a con- 
venient and good method of propagation. 
The number of plants that yield suitable cuttings 
for propagation is very large, but they are not all 
