INDIAN AZALEAS. 
99 
to give them the greater part of the summer to perfect the opera¬ 
tion ; and, in order to accelerate the maturity of the seed, the 
plants should be kept in the house as long as they will bear it 
without injury. If the convenience of a stove is at hand, it will 
be best to sow the seed as soon as it is ripe, otherwise it must be 
kept till the following spring; in either case it should be sown in 
pans of very sandy peat, pressed down firmly, then sprinkled 
evenly over and barely covered with sand. A very gentle heat is 
sufficient to get it up, and, if sown in autumn, the pans should 
be placed in the stove and the young plants kept growing. This 
will save a whole season in the plants’ progress, because then 
they may be potted the first spring. This operation should be 
done as soon as they can be handled, and it should be an endea¬ 
vour to grow them pretty fast the first year or two, so as to get 
them to a blooming state as early as possible. 
Propagation of established varieties is done in various ways, 
by cuttings, inarching, or grafting. The latter is the most usual, 
though, with a few exceptions, there does not appear any very 
good reason assignable for the custom : the only positive neces¬ 
sity for grafting is in the case of a very delicate-growing variety, 
to which it is desirable to impart some additional vigour, and it 
not unfrequently happens in the blind practice of following the 
general rule, that we meet with a scion worked upon a stock 
more weakly itself, and not a few of the provoking cases of 
sudden death, which sometimes occur in this family are attributable 
to this cause, the stock is unable to support the naturally vi¬ 
gorous head, it becomes exhausted, and death of the whole ensues 
as a necessary consequence. With kinds of a robust habit it is 
far easier to propagate by cuttings, and blooming plants are ob¬ 
tained quite as soon. The cuttings should be taken when the 
current year’s wood begins to harden at the base; those shoots 
which are from three to four inches in length are the best, and, 
if they are planted in the usual way, covered with a bell-glass, 
and placed in a very mild hot-bed or a cold frame kept close and 
shaded, they will root freely, and, under tolerably good manage¬ 
ment, will make flowering plants in two years. 
Whenever it may be necessary on account of habit to employ 
grafting, care should be taken that the stock or plant to be 
grafted on is in good health and of a vigorous, free habit, or it is 
