CUTTINGS 67 
readily propagated from cuttings, whilst all the species and 
crosses of the Javanicimi race are multiplied in this way. 
Azalea stocks are raised from the soft lateral shoots 
which develop from the grafted stocks in winter. They 
are inserted in shallow boxes of sandy soil, placed in shallow 
frames, heated to a temperature of from 65° to 70° F., 
and kept moist to saturation point ; they root in about 
four weeks, and are then transplanted into beds or potted 
singly into thumb pots, and grown in a moist house or 
frame until the following spring, when they are beheaded 
and grafted. 
Belgian growers have perfected this method of raising 
Azaleas by the thousand, so that scarcely one per cent, of 
cuttings or grafts fail. They have low houses, such as we 
call pits, with propagating frames on both sides, the frames 
being flat, large squares of glass serving as a covering, and 
the cuttings on the one side, grafted plants on the other, 
are all placed as thick as they will stand, their tops almost 
touching the glass. 
In France, bell glasses, placed on shaded borders of light 
sandy soil in the open air, are used for raising Azalea stocks 
from cuttings, in much the same way as we raise hardy 
Heaths. The principle is the same, whether frames in a 
house or cloches outside are used, the cuttings being kept 
uniformly moist and the air about them fresh. 
The Javanese Rhododendrons are, as has been said, 
invariably multiplied by cuttings formed of half-ripened 
shoots and placed in frames in sandy peat soil, where they 
are kept at a temperature of about 60®. They root freely 
when thus treated, the thousands of plants which have 
been raised in the nurseries of Messrs. ]. Veitch & Sons 
having all been raised in this way. Azalea Hexe, a cross 
