Account of a Larch Tree. 
•293 
l)ut pushed uj) three shoots from the prostrate truuk, each of which has 
become a handsome tree, differing in no respect from plants raised 
from seed. 
This specimen I consider of importance, as affording a perfect illus¬ 
tration of the mode recommended by my excellent friend, Mr. Stewart 
Murray, Curator of the Glasgow Botanic Garden, for obtaining a 
tree-like stem from cuttings of Cunninghdmia lanceoldta, and which 
he judged from analog}' would be found equally applicable to the kin¬ 
dred genera, Araucdria, Pinus, ^c.* Many plants of these tribes are 
easily propagated by cuttings or layers, but the offspring never, I be¬ 
lieve, if left to themselves, assume any other shape than that of branches; 
but Mr. Murray found that on bending a branch-like plant of Cun- 
ninghdmia lanceoldto., and fastening it on the surface of the ground, 
a shoot was produced possessing all the characters of the original tree. 
Ldrix possesses the same property, and if, as there is every reason to 
believe, Araucdria exceha will succeed, when treated in the same' 
way, this fine plant may soon be much more common than it is at 
present. 
A splendid specimen o^Arauca'ria was lost some years since 
in the Royal Dublin Society’s Botanic Garden, in an attempt to elevate 
the hou.se in which it grew, but previous to this misfortune cuttings 
or layers had been struck, and although they have attained considera¬ 
ble dimensions, and notwithstanding, that every attempt, short of that 
recommended by Mr. Murray, has been made to force them to assume 
the appearance of trees, they continue mere branches. 
yours, respectfully, 
E. ^lURPUV., 
• Gardener’s Magaziue, Vol. II, page 401). 
