216 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Jula 12, 1859. 
trees, and woody bushes that are difficult to root, or to 
propapate fast enough ; and the operation is done, or 
rather was done, on the roots. But let us bring it home 
to ourselves, and say we have as large a garden as we can 
afford to keep, lots of trees all round the sides, and no 
one seems to know the names of one-half of them. Every 
year some of our visitors ask for seeds or cuttings of some 
particular kinds of our trees ; but they will neither ripen 
seeds nor come from cuttings, and, not knowing the 
names, we cannot buy young plants to please our best 
friends. But Gilbert’s plan of root-layers, with the 
tongue upwards, would do the thing as quietly as possible, 
and no one be the wiser. Who knows but even Conifers 
would thus come from root-layers F A vast number of 
plants will come from root-cuttings; and there is the 
common practice of cutting roots through, and leaving 
them in the ball at the spring potting to sprout or perish, 
as the case may be : but the old method of layering the 
roots is the best and surest way. Gilbert says, “Nature 
usually provides this way of propagation, without the wit 
or industry of man called to her assistance; but that not 
generally in all plants, nor always in any one : therefore 
well worth learning of those that delight in gardens to 
know any means to enlarge this way of propagation 
beyond the bounds it is carried through byNature’s course. 
And it is done by baring the roots of plants of woody 
substance, and then making a cut of the same fashion 
with that which is made in layings, not towards butfrom- 
wards the plant. Into this cleft a stone must be put, or 
something that will make the root gape, and the part cut 
(the tongue) stand upwards. Then cover the root over 
with three inches of light mould; and the lip that was 
lifted up will sprout into branches, the root of the old 
tree nourishing it. When the branches are grown, cut 
off this plant with its roots to live of itself. This is called 
starting a root.” 
In bulbous roots, Ferarius makes offsets thus :—“ If,” 
says he, “ a bulbous root is barren of offsets, with your 
nail lightly cut it upon the bottom in the crown of the 
root whence the fibres spring, and sprinkle some dry 
dust upon it as a medicine to the wounds;” and the effect 
he affirms to be this, that “ so many wounds as you shall 
make, in so many offsets shall the genital virtue dispose 
itself.” This last method of increasing rare bulbs is the 
best and surest way we know of at the present day. 
“ Caryophyllus hortensis, called July-flowers, or, more 
vulgarly, Carnations, vie with any species whatever, con¬ 
sidering the usefulness of some of them as the best cor¬ 
dials, extremely comforting the noblest part of man, the 
heart, either in the conserve of the Cloves made with 
sugar or in syrups.” He puts great stress on the right 
compost for them, and his soils would do now; and the 
substance of the following paragraph was given "as a great 
novelty—quite an original idea—by a great friend of 
mine not many years back :—“ Another sort of earth for 
July-liowers I was acquainted by one Mr. Eidkin, gar¬ 
dener to the worthy Sir John Packingtou, of Westwood, 
in Worcestershire, in which I saw his flowers flourish and 
mark beyond expectation. It was thus compounded: 
Rotten tan— i.e., the relicks or rubbish of a tanner’s pit 
—that by long lying is converted to earth, this layn on a 
heap for three months to sweeten, for in its own nature 
tis too sour for such uses—to one barrowful of which 
four of good rotten wood-pile earth, and the rubbish of 
old walls, or, for want of which, a little old decayed lime 
—a quarter of a peck at most—mixed well together, and 
let lie a fortnight ere you put it in your pots for July- 
flower layers to be transplanted in is a secret few know.” 
.Again. “ From the middle of June to the "same time 
in July is the prime time of laying July-flowers. Make 
choice of such slips as are longest, having joints sufficient 
for laying ; prune off the side leaves, and the ends of the 
top leaves; cut the undermost part of the middle joint 
half through ; from hence slit the middle of the stalk 
upwards to the next joint; open the earth underneath to 
receive it; then gently bend it down therein, with a small 
hook stick stuck in the earth to keep it down, keeping up 
the head of the slip, that the slit may be open, "and so 
pressed down and earthed up ; which as soon as performed 
must be sure to be watered, which must* be often re¬ 
iterated.” 
Now, that is the original receipt, by which all the 
layering, and all the writing about layering, have been 
done for the last two hundred years ; and any one who 
can handle a penknife, or one of those excellent knives 
manufactured by Mappin Brothers, which will cut into 
anything to a hair’s breadth, may now try his hand at 
Gilliflowers, Roses, Jasmines, rare Honeysuckles, and 
almost all kinds of woody plants; but let us stick to 
Roses, as the best to teach patience, to show that neither 
silk, nor cotton, nor any thread gloves, are necessary to 
save the fingers from pricking; also the best to learn 
gentleness in handling the brittle shoots, which will snap 
like glass if they are not fingered as a hairdresser would 
ply his hands and fingers in “ touching up ” for a court 
ball. That is the style, the stroke, and the way to slit 
tongues, to root fast, and freely, from all sides of the cut. 
Giliiflowers take six weeks to toot, and September is the 
best time to take them off and pot or plant them. Roses 
will have to remain on till about the end of February; 
but the heads of all Hose layers ought to he pruned back 
to three eyes at the end of October, as a most scientific 
rule never to be departed from on any consideration 
whatever, as that simple process will just advance every 
such layer fully twelve months over another of the same 
kind of Rose which is not pruned till it is cut off from 
the stool early in the spring. Those who cannot strike 
Roses now from cuttings should try this. 
D. Beaton. 
THE ADVANTAGES OF ORDER AND METHOD 
IN GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 
It has been said that “ order is Heaven’s first law,” and there 
can bo no more striking application of this truism, in its earthly 
sense, than is found in the order, method, and arrangement of all 
the details which belong to a large garden. 
Unhappy is the man who is placed at the head of such an 
establishment if he have not received something of a liberal 
education; something which' elevates him to the rank of a 
“liberal profession,” so handsomely assigned to gardeners by 
Judge Ilallyburton. If he have not had this given to him, and 
does not possess a degree of acumen,— at least, equal to his 
fellow men,—I say that his lot is not to be envied. 
To make a really good gardener, it is not only necessary that a 
man should possess an infinite knowledge of fruits, flowers, and 
vegiftables, and of the fit and proper seasons for sowing them, 
according to rule, but lie must have resources within himself, 
and be able to step aside from the practices he has seen and pur¬ 
sued, and adopt others which may suit the demands made upon 
him by his employers, the inexorable cook, or to suit the poor, dry 
soil, and an ungenial climate, by that modification which every 
practised man knows how to mhke. 
There is a great charm in neatness, in giving to every operation 
that touch which shows it to be accomplished by a skilful 
operative. We find that, in our progress to thorough civilisation 
the artistic impress is more and more necessary. Man in his 
primitive state is satisfied with ruder implements and coarser 
food ; but as lie rises higher in the scale, he engrafts the dulce on 
the utile, and gives artistic designs for the pots and pans of his 
household. He gives to his tools in addition to their useful 
properties an elegance of design, which is not lost upon all well- 
regulated minds. He is no longer satisfied with garments which 
merely guard him from cold ; but they must have also “ the cut 
of elegance ;” and, look ye, how far removed from the necessaries 
of common life is yonder elegant table groaning under its load of 
“ delicacies of the season,” and grouped and adorned with 
Flora’s choicest gems. 
It is beautiful to remark in the courses of life how concomi¬ 
tantly-improved design follows up improved usefulness. 
A garden to be highly kept must be most accurate in the 
expression of its hues and forms as works of art. There ought 
