200 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[Sbptembhk, 
should be cut through horizontally close to the joint, and they should then be 
planted in an open space, in good ground, inserting four inches of the cutting, 
and leaving the two buds well above the surface. The object to be aimed at is 
to get a good stout stem a clear foot above the surface, and therefore, as soon as 
the shoots show signs of vitality, and probable growth in the spring, the 
healthiest shoot from the two buds must be retained and encouraged to grow 
up straight and strong, by training it to a stake as it advances in growth. With 
erect-growing sorts this is not much trouble, but with varieties of a drooping 
habit, constant care must be taken to fasten them to the stake whilst the shoots 
are young and pliable. This is all the care the}’- will require the first year. 
At any time during the dormant season these shoots should be shortened, so 
as to form a good stem one foot from the ground, at which point the future 
head, for training purposes, will start. Most of the buds, except four or five at 
the top, may be rubbed off. In the spring, as soon as growth commences, pre¬ 
paration must at once be made for training, but as they will not make any very 
great growth the first year, a few straight stakes, from two to three feet in length, 
Avill be all that will be necessary to keep the young shoots in position. 
There are two methods or forms of training, either of which may be adopted 
with advantage. One is to train up a strong centre stem, and from this lead 
out the side-shoots horizontally at equal distances. The other is to train out 
two strong shoots horizontally, one each way, from the centre, but no centre 
shoot, these two side-shoots being trained Cordon fashion, about one foot from 
the ground, and the bearing shoots trained upright from these to the top of the 
trellis at equal distances, so as to cover the whole of it. The shoots may also be 
trained in the shape of a fan, that is, diverging in all directions from a common 
centre ; but I do not recommend this as the most economical mode of training, 
the growth being more unmanageable from the tendency, which all fruit-trees 
trained in that manner have, to concentrate the growth in the centre of the tree. 
It will thus be seen that the young shoots of the second year’s growth must 
be trained in accordance with the mode selected, but as I purpose to enter 
rather minutely into the first few years of training, I must reserve that for 
another paper.— John Cox, Redleaf. 
PACHYPHYTUM BRACTEOSUM: 
An Easy Method of Propagating. 
^ff^OLIAGE plants are now so generally grown in gardens for decorative 
qSP purposes during the summer months, that any information respecting the 
best means to increase the stock of some of the more choice of them, 
cannot fail to prove interesting to readers of the Florist. 
The propagation of the handsome succulent whose name heads this paper can 
be most rapidly managed by seed, and it is comparatively easy of accomplishment, 
to those who have a stove in which to raise it. But with those who love and grow 
foliage plants, and have nothing better than a cold frame or cool house in which 
