66 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
tion. There does not appear to be any satisfactory reason 
why Rhododendrons generally should not be as readily 
propagated in this way as other Ericaceae are. Erica itself 
is difficult, in the case of the hard-wooded Cape species at 
any rate, but cuttings were, and still are, the only means of 
increasing them in this country, where seeds very rarely 
ripen. Arbutus, Pernettya, Gaultheria, Andromeda, Kalmia, 
and Clethra, all shrubby members of this order, are propa- 
gated by means of cuttings. In a paper on hardy Rhodo- 
dendrons by Mr. Rudolf Seidel, Dresden, published in 1902, 
it is stated that in his nursery large numbers of Rhododen- 
drons of the caucasicum type, including Cunningham's 
White, are propagated by cuttings. They are put in in 
November or December, the soil used being chiefly sand in 
a frame kept moist and warm by a hot-water bed. By 
March they are well rooted, when they are potted and 
hardened off before being planted out in beds in the open. 
It is more than likely that the majority of, if not all. 
Rhododendrons are capable of being multiplied from 
cuttings, and that when once rooted they would thrive at 
least as well as when grafted. This is true of most Roses 
and fruit, which nevertheless are invariably multiplied by 
grafting. There is no physiological difference between the 
several forms of Indian Azaleas that are propagated from 
cuttings to be used as stocks, and the varieties that are 
grafted upon them. Nor can there be any difference, so 
far as the capacity to strike root is concerned, between a 
hybrid Rhododendron and a species. Still, Rhododen- 
drons generally are not propagated from cuttings. 
When R. racemosum was introduced from China it was 
propagated from cuttings, hundreds of plants being thus 
raised at Kew. The North American Azaleas also are 
